Curling club enters Kraft tour contest

Lucas Punkari

The Fort Frances Curling Club has thrown its hat into the ring to be one of the 10 communities selected for this year’s Kraft Celebration Tour.
Two bids from the club were submitted for this year’s competition—one sent in by Muskie curler Hailey Beaudry and the other by club members Patrick Briere and Ron Silver.
“We decided that it would be a great idea to try and help the club out a little bit, especially since we have lost some members over the last year,” Briere explained.
“One of the main criteria for submitting the bid is to have a project that has done well for the community,” he noted.
“And we feel that our geothermal project has been something that goes along with that as we are one of the very few clubs in Canada that has a geothermal heating and cooling system.
“We figured that we might as well try it because the worst thing that could happen will be if someone says no, right?” he reasoned.
Although the final 20 nominations from the 629 that were received won’t be announced until June 30, both bids can receive support over the next couple of weeks via the official Kraft Celebration Tour website.
“From there, people can share the bid information via e-mail, Facebook, or Twitter,” said Briere.
“People can vote for both of the bids because when everything is put together from the essay that we had to write, and the support that everyone gives both bids, everything from both submissions for the curling club will be combined,” he added.
Once the 20 finalists are announced, they will be paired off into 10 head-to-head match-ups to determine the winners, which will be decided via a 24-hour online vote that will run from July 8-20.
The 10 winners will receive $25,000 that will go towards their community, along with the opportunity to host a live broadcast of TSN’s SportsCentre program.