What’s New for 2017
New for 2017:
- Our financial goal for 2017 is to raise $15,000.00 for the Heart and Stroke Foundation. With your help we can reach this goal and make a difference in the lives of people impacted by heart disease and stroke.
- Our curling goal for 2017 is 88 curling teams, 16 in the new Recreational division and 72 in the standard Ironman division, all playing together on 10 sheets of curling ice on the Red River near the Forks Historic Port and having a blast!
Registration Payments
To reach these two ambitious goals, we need your help. The payment format for the event changed in 2016 so that all curling teams are now required to pre-pay before they will show as a Registered team. This will help us determine more accurately how many teams to put in the draw, and help us with expenses leading up to the event. It also reduces our work load during the event weekend which was spent collecting fees and signing waivers for teams who hadn’t finished paying online.
Also introduced in 2016 was the option to raise additional donations by way of a pledge sheet. Once your team is registered, download and print a copy and ask your friends, family, neighbors and co-workers to make a pledge towards you and your team for charity. You can also have them donate on the website towards your registered team HERE, so to make it super easy for them just email a link and tell them your team’s name. All donations of $20 or over will receive a charitable receipt from the charity following the event, so it’s a Win-Win!
Did You Know: Since the pledge option was introduced in 2016, we have had several teams who raised more than their $100 team registration donation using the pledge sheets and online donations. Ironman curling also introduced the Silver Corn Broom award which is presented to the top fundraising teams for their outstanding efforts.
This is an old style corn curling broom which can be mounted on a wall as a keepsake, but is also fully functional for curling at our event. Be sure to check the Ironman Curling ice out for teams that may be curling with an old style broom that’s silver in color and see it for yourself. Who knows, maybe you too will own one after the next event!
Recreational Division (renamed in 2024 from Family Division)
The new Recreational division will be limited to the first 16 team entries and played on 4 multi-purpose sheets that will have 4 houses per sheet. Recreational division teams will be playing from the hack to the shorter green houses, which are 36 feet closer than the standard Ironman houses.
The Recreational house hog line will be at 69 feet from the hack (at center ice, used for both Recreational houses). We hope this will make it easier to get more stones in play, and encourage everyone young and young-at-heart to participate in our FUN-spiel and keep active during the winter while raising funds for the Heart & Stroke Foundation. To see what all 10 sheets could look like together, click here.
Volunteering
As always we are looking for volunteers to join our merry-band of energetic organizers and curlers to help put on this event. We come from all walks of life, with all sorts of talents. Some join to because their friends are already volunteering or because they just love curling and want to be involved, and others join for the challenge of organizing and participating in an event of this scale, or because the Heart and Stroke Foundation is dear to their hearts. Whatever the reason, we join together for a common cause and to have fun. I invite you to join us to help make our 16th year an incredible experience for the over 350 participants who will be there.
Did You Know: Our core organizing Committee meets once a month and we also communicate by email and phone throughout the year. We also have many other sub-committees and volunteer positions and tasks available that are more geared to the event weekend in February and/or leading up to it in the week or so just before the event in late January, so if your time is more limited or you just want to try helping out one day for a few hours to start with, please let us know you are interested and we will find something that fits your schedule. All help is greatly appreciated!
If you have any questions or would like to join one of our Committee groups or become a volunteer, you can reach us by phone at 204-831-8816 or by one of the many methods listed on our contact us page.