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Curling awards presented in Northern Ontario

May 18, 2008

Curling clubs across the country have taken up their ice for the summer, but that ice isn't forgotten. At least not in Northern Ontario. The Northern Ontario Curling Association ("NOCA") recognized the outstanding efforts of ice technician Brent Adamson. Along with Adamson, NOCA presented awards to three volunteers.

The Pat O. Reid Ice Technician Award was presented by the Chair Elect for Curl Ontario, Jan Pula. The award is well deserved by Brent Adamson who is the provincial ice technician for the NOCA. Adamson had a busy year, being the head ice maker for two curling clubs in Thunder Bay—the Fort William Curling Club and Port Arthur Curling Club.

His accomplishments include being the ice technician for events at the provincial and national level. It all started when he learned about ice making as a young man in Sioux Narrows.

Another major award handed out was the NOCA Club Recognition Award. The 2008 recipient of this award is the Espanola Curling Club, home of last January's Northern Ontario Women's Provincials and the Ontario Scotties Tournament of Hearts.

This awards ceremony also recognized three volunteers. You don't have to watch very many curling events to realize that volunteers are an incredibly vital part of the sport. The three recipients of volunteer awards this year were Rose Neufeld, Karen Saarimaki, and Robert MacLeod.

Neufeld is a volunteer who has put in a lot of work at the Blind River Curling Club. According to the nomination sent in by her club, Rose Neufeld is being recognized for her "behind the scene dedication and enthusiastic and positive promotion of the club over many years".

Karen Saarimaki volunteers at the Geraldton Curling Club. She is a course instructor, league chair, coach of bantam and junior teams, committee member, and a curler herself. In fact, one of the bantam boys team she coached competed at the Ontario Winter Games where they brought home a silver medal.

The final recipient was Robert MacLeod, who volunteers at the Iroquois Falls Curling Club. He has worked a lot with junior curling and volunteers with the Falls Curling Club's Little Rock program.