Lawes takes turn as calendar girl

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walter Janzen Photography Kaitlyn Lawes takes it like a rock as she poses for her shot on the 2012 Women of Curling calendar.

The new "Women of Curling" calendar was unveiled Wednesday and Jennifer Jones third Kaitlyn Lawes is among the 12 women featured.

Lawes joins 11 other female curlers from Canada, the U.S., Scotland, Sweden and Russia in the annual calendar, which raises money for charity and the teams involved.

Jones second Jill Officer was the cover girl in the 2011 calendar and Lawes said seeing how Officer was represented helped her overcome her initial reluctance to take part.

"This is definitely out of my comfort zone," said Lawes, who was photographed wearing a cocktail dress. "But I like how you can choose your own photos and how you want to be represented. And it's all for a good cause."

A portion of the proceeds from the sale of the calendars is being donated to the Canadian and American spinal research organizations, and one of the curlers featured in the 2012 edition is 2006 and 2010 Paralympian curler Sonja Gaudet of Vernon, B.C.

The other curlers featured this year are Scotland's Eve Muirhead, Sweden's Cissi Ostlund, Russia's Ekaterina Galkina, San Francisco's Regan Mizuno, B.C.'s Shannon Aleksic, Edmonton's Kalynn Park, Laura Crocker of Kitchener, Ont., Ottawa's Emma Miskew, Toronto's Jill Mouzar and Halifax's Heather Smith-Dacey.

The calendar begins shipping in November. Orders are being taken online at www.womenofcurlingcalendar.com.

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Winnipeg's Jeff Stoughton and his 2011 world champion squad will be honoured at this Friday night's final regular-season Winnipeg Blue Bombers game at Canad Inns Stadium.

The Stoughton foursome -- third Jon Mead, second Reid Carruthers and lead Steve Gould -- were originally scheduled to be honoured at the July 28 Bombers game versus the B.C. Lions.

But the sudden death on July 26 of Bombers assistant head coach Richard Harris prompted Stoughton to volunteer to step aside for that game so the club could focus all its attention on honouring Harris.

It was a gesture the Bombers appreciated and one for which they will make amends this Friday. "They were very gracious to remove themselves from that game," Bombers spokesman Darren Cameron said Wednesday. "They are going to be getting VIP treatment on Friday."

Gould said the team is thrilled to be part of such a historic game. "It's quite an honour for us," he said. "We're really looking forward to being a part of all that."

paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition October 27, 2011 C12