CurlON 50-50

Hello Curlers

I hope this letter finds everyone keeping healthy, happy and away from COVID-19.  The rising numbers are extremely concerning.

Our Administrative Committee and Board of Directors met late last week to discuss the curling future for 2020-2021.  After much discussion and deliberation, there was a unanimous decision to not open the Club this year.

The health and safety of  our curlers was our first priority.  We reviewed all the restrictions, including the need to wear a mask, social distance etc. and collectively felt it would be difficult for us to provide our curlers a safe curling experience.  

The second priority for our committee was the financial well being of our Club.  Financially, to open the Club with the COVID-19 restrictions was not financially prudent.   In addition to the initial costs to open, with numbers rising we felt that it is probably only time until we would experience cases of COVID -19 which could ultimately cause shut down and cost us additional expenses.  Given our decision to not open, we are taking actions to reduce our costs, however, some costs like taxes, insurance, and basic building and plant maintenance cannot be avoided. We will share more financial information in the following months as we confirm what our costs will be for operating this year.  

Our decisions were made after carefully reviewing the situation and we believe we made them in the best interest of the curlers and the Uxbridge Curling Club.  

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Andrew Lindsey for all this time and effort as Bonspiel Chair this past season.  He has resigned his position as he is moving to Milton for personal reasons.  We wish him well and we hope to see him back for a bonspiel in the future.    We will be looking for someone to take over this role as we plan for our 2021-22 season.  Feel free to contact me if you are interested in helping us out.  It is an important position on our committee and very rewarding.

Our 60th Anniversary year came to a very abrupt close as a result of the Corona Virus.  Therefore, I would like to share the results of our 2019-2020 curling season with you.

Our Volunteer of the Year for our 60th Anniversary was awarded to Patrick Brown.  Patrick was instrumental in the Learn to Curl Program for our Club.  He devoted hours to the program.  It was very successful.  He also helped Darryl Stevenson again this year with the Little Rock and Bantam Program.  Congratulation Patrick from all of us.  You are a very deserving recipient. 

Given that our curling year ended abruptly, with one week of league play remaining, Judy Risebrough, Match & Rule Chair, had a real dilemma to determine who should be identified as the League Champions and Runners Up.  She developed a proposal that was based on the placing of the teams as of the last week of curling.  The proposal was discussed at our joint meeting and unanimously accepted by all present.  I am therefore pleased to share the 2019-2020 results.

Congratulation to all of our Champions and Runners-up on a successful curling season.  Judy will be in touch with you regarding how to pick up your keeper trophy, which this year is a special 60th anniversary curling bag for the Champions and a 60th anniversary backpack for the Runners Up.

Never in my 53 years of curling have I ever seen or had to deal with so many hard decisions and unbelievable things.  It has not been much fun by spells.  This past year was supposed to be a happy, celebratory year for Uxbridge Curlers.  It has had many challenges but I hope overall everyone can find some happy and enjoyable times to remember, as well as remembering the new curling friends they made.

I will be sending regular newsletters to all of you.  I ask all of you to do your part in this pandemic and hopefully we can get back to a new normal sooner rather than later.

Take care!  Keep well!  Stay Safe!

Margaret McKnight, President

March 11, 2020

CurlON STATEMENT on COVID-19

Curling Community,With the recent news and events worldwide in association with the CORONA VIRUS (COVID-19) curling is taking the following steps and encouraging all our facilities to be pro-active and continue monitoring situations as they develop.

•Abstain from customary handshakes pre/post game. Use other forms of non-contact greetings.
•Provide disinfectants wipes for cleaning of rock handles prior to start of each game
•Provide handsanitizer in club rooms for all participants
•Strongly advise all participants to restrict their participation if feeling ill. Do not attend to the curling venue if you show any symptoms associated with the virus.

Read More...

The winner of the Ray Grant Trophy was the Al Gates entry from Unionville.

Skip Greg Elliott, Vice Al Gates, Second Brian Gemmell and Lead Barry Hoover.

Congrats to our overall winners of the 2020 UxSpiel, generously sponsored by Baldwin Sales

Skip: Bill Harwood
Vice: Gail Closs
Second: Blair Purcell
Lead: Terri Ness

This year's Turkey bonspiel was a great time! A team from Lindsay took the title.

Angie Melaney- Skip
Tim Raven- Vice
Katie McLaughlin- Second
Ryan Miles- Lead

Thank you to our kitchen helpers!
David  Gillespie
Jane Muir
Marie Gowans
Heather Mosher Saunders
Ben Gornik - Student
Norm Preston
Laurie Kennedy
Greg Norton
Brenda Harper
And Pam Norton for running the kitchen!

2 teams representing Uxbridge travelled to Lindsay on January 11th to play in the U15 bonspiel, with coach Patrick Brown spearheading the intiative. Both teams played well, each winning their first games. After lunch, Team Tully came back after losing the first two ends, to win the next 6 ends with enough points to take first place overall. The kids all had a great time, and did a terrific job representing the Uxbridge Curling Club,

Congratulations to the team of John Bell (skip), Stephen Hawkshaw (vice), Kevin Hawkshaw (second), and Brian Hawkshaw (lead) from the Tam Heather Curling Club on winning the Williamson T-Bone Bonspiel, held on January 4th. Thanks once again to our sponsors,

Our provider has developed a simple free app that can be installed on your phone.  Go to the "Play Store"  -Android or "Apple Store" - IPhone and download "Curling Club Manager".  All you'll need to do then is choose our Club from the drop down, put in your website username and password and you're all set.  It is an easy way to check out when your next game is. You can even set up reminders there. 

You can't do everything in the app so continue to use our web site as well. Remember, you can also download your schedule to your phone calendar from the website.  (This is a bit trickier but someone at the Club can help you if you need it)