Right in the house

Elmwood

East Kildonan

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This article was published 08/11/2023 (888 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

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Every Monday afternoon, from 1 to 3 p.m., about a dozen members of the Elmwood-East Kildonan Active Living Centre get together at 180 Poplar Ave. for a little floor curling.

“It’s just like curling, on ice, in many ways,” organizer Terry Hirt explained. “We’ve got sticks there, with hooks, so if they need to they can just stand there and give it a shove. What makes the ‘ice’ is we use shuffleboard wax, and that gives you the ice there for the rocks to slide. Because of the way the building has shifted, you can see how the rocks slide that way a little. There’s not much we can do about that.”

Instead of hacks, rubberized mats are set up at either end of the rinks, which are painted on the floor.

“The last thing we want anyone to do is fall and break a hip or something,” Hirt said.

“It’s something to do,” said Allen Savage, a weekly player who lives nearby just off Henderson Highway. “I used to curl on ice, oh yeah. Ice you gotta sweep, here you don’t.”

“You just aim for the stick, and some don’t even do that,” Hirt added with a chuckle.

Hirt first got involved at the centre in 2015 because his mother was a member. At the time, the floor curling group could count on about 30 participants each week, making use of all four of the centre’s “rinks.” Now, only about a dozen come out each week.

“Some members are newer, some have been here for years,” Hirt said. “I’d love to get back up to even 24, so we could use our three rinks and have everyone play and enjoy it.”

Still, the members who make it out each Monday enjoy their time together.

“It’s all about having a good afternoon, a little bit of socializing and everything else,” Hirt said.

“We got a good group here,” Savage said, adding he also carpet bowls at the centre on Friday afternoons. “It’s a good time.”

“We hope friends of members can come out and try it,” Hirt said. “Some come out and never come back, so that’s hit and miss. It doesn’t cost much, just your $25 annual membership, then $1.25, and that’s just for the coffee and treats after.”