Rolling out the welcome rink

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This article was published 31/10/2022 (1142 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Luke Robins heard the devastating news shortly after his first game at the Manitoba Junior Men’s Curling Provincials in Brandon in February.

Robins, a Grade 12 student at West Kildonan Collegiate and a proud Ukrainian-Canadian, picked up his phone and saw Russia had launched a military invasion of Ukraine.

“It really sunk in with me that night and I could barely sleep,” Robins told the Free Press.

“I was just thinking of all the poor lives that are gonna be lost and affected in an awfully negative way because of what’s happening.”

Robins, who’s been Ukrainian dancing since he was three years old and still has a few distant relatives in the country, was determined to help. He started volunteering at the Ukrainian National Federation on Main Street and helped the organization with its welcome centre for those who were displaced by war. The 17-year-old also helped organize a bake sale at school that raised more than $1,500 for humanitarian relief for Ukrainians.

Robins didn’t want to stop there. He saw an opportunity where he could use one of his biggest passions to help.

This winter, Robins is launching an introduction to curling program for Ukrainian refugees based out of the West St. Paul Curling Club. The program will have on and off-ice sessions to learn the basics of the game and there will be a translator to help relay the information.

Robins has been curling for 10 years and feels the sport can help people at a time of need.

“It’s a way for them to get adjusted to their new way of life here. And this might not be something that they had access to in Ukraine,” Robins said.

“So, by giving them the opportunity to learn something new, it’s something that I think will be really impactful in their lives, especially with everything that’s going on.”

The idea led to Robins being named last week as one of eight recipients of Curling Canada’s inaugural All Heart Junior Curling award. The award is for young curlers who develop a youth-driven philanthropic curling program that bring a more diverse demographic of Canadians to the sport and encourage greater inclusivity.

The winners receive $2,500 to put toward their initiatives and to help with curling facility costs.

“We’re extremely grateful for the help from Curling Canada. Obviously, everybody from Ukraine that’s come to Canada, they’re fleeing a war zone and have seen things they want to unsee,” said Robins.

“They’re scarred from it and there’s no going back from that. So, I think with this program, it’ll sort of be a way for them to learn something new that could maybe help them physically, mentally, whatever it is, when they step on the ice for the first time.”

Robins is one of two Manitobans to receive the award. The other happens to be his teammate, Logan Strand. Strand, a Grade 12 student at Lord Selkirk Secondary School, came up with the idea for a curling program at West St. Paul for International high school students.

Robins, the team’s skip, and Strand, who plays lead, reached the under-18 provincial final last season. This past weekend, they finished in third place at Curl Manitoba’s Canada Games Trials at Winnipeg’s Heather Curling Club.

“Last year there were some international students that tried out for the high school curling team, so I figured there was some interest there. And for a lot of young people, I don’t think curling is that approachable of a sport,” said Strand.

“Usually, you get introduced to it through family or friends. So, I wanted to provide an opportunity to a group of diverse people to come learn how to curl in hopes that they would enjoy the experience, share that with their host families, and with all their friends at school which could promote more interest in the sport of curling, especially in young people.”

Rural Manitoba curling teams off to 2023 Canada Winter Games

Altona’s Dayna Wahl and Virden’s Jace Freeman will represent Manitoba in curling at the 2023 Canada Winter Games in Prince Edward Island in February.

Wahl, Piper Stoesz, Anna Marie Ginters, and Gillian Hildebrand bounced back from a 3-4 start at the Manitoba trials on the weekend to win back-to-back playoff games to earn the right to represent the province on the national stage. Wahl outlasted Carman’s Shaela Hayward 6-5 in the championship game on Sunday.

Freeman, Elias Huminicki, Jack Steski, and Rylan Graham didn’t drop a game all weekend and capped it off with a 7-5 victory over Ronan Peterson.

Manitoba’s mixed-doubles team for the Canada Games will be determined on Nov. 24-27 with another round of trials at the Heather.

Jones and Lawes fail to reach Autumn Gold Curling Classic final

Jennifer Jones and Kaitlyn Lawes fell short in Calgary on Monday at the Autumn Gold Curling Classic.

Lawes bowed out in the quarterfinals after a 6-5 loss to Switzerland’s Michele Jaeggi in the morning. Jaeggi would then proceed to defeat Jones by the same score in the afternoon to advance to the final against Korea’s Eun ji Gim.

Jones went 6-3 in Calgary on the weekend while Lawes went 4-2.

Winnipeg’s Chelsea Carey was also at the event and closed out the qualifying round with a 9-3 loss to Jones to drop to 3-3 and miss the playoff round. Abby Ackland, another Winnipegger, had a strong showing, going 5-3 before losing 7-4 to Gim in the quarters. Gim beat Jaeggi 8-2 in the championship game.

taylor.allen@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @TaylorAllen31