Tournament of Hearts draws a crowd in Altona

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This article was published 27/01/2011 (5714 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

ALTONA — A town of 3,700 people hosting an event with 300 volunteers.

That fact, perhaps more than anything else, best illustrates the effort being put forth in this southern Manitoba community to stage this week’s Manitoba Scotties Tournament of Hearts.

“I’ve seen people this week who haven’t been at a curling event for decades,” says event co-chair Al Friesen, “but they’re volunteering this week.

“This is the biggest event we’ve hosted in Altona. No question. I don’t even figure, I know. We’ve had some hockey and figure skating things, but nothing like this.”

This week’s Manitoba women’s curling championship is being held in the eight-year-old Millennium Exhibition Centre, a complex that houses a 750-seat hockey rink plus a curling club, running track and community hall.

The building’s existence is evidence of the can-do attitude of a community that has always punched above its weight class. Until this week, Altona was perhaps best known as the head office of a world-class printing house, Friesens, and a feisty and growing media conglomerate, Golden West Radio.

Friesens has grown into Canada’s largest printer of hardcover books (and Canadian printer of part of the Harry Potter series), while the Golden West chain has gone from a single radio station here in town — CFAM — to a formidable chain that now numbers 36 properties stretching from northwestern Ontario to Alberta.

Still, the decision to host the second biggest curling event in Manitoba was a bit of a stretch for this community.

With just two small hotels, there were accommodation issues. And then there was the fact Altona is a bit of a Prairie island, a 25-minute drive from Winkler, a 30-minute drive from Morris and a 90-minute drive from Winnipeg.

That’s not particularly close to anything or anywhere and yet pre-event ticket sales topped the $10,000 mark, organizers had to print a second run of day passes Wednesday and sold $4 grand in walk-ups and the building, which can hold close to 1,500 for curling, was about two-thirds full for both afternoon draws.

It’s the second year in a row Curl Manitoba has chosen to tuck their marquee women’s event into a small town, operating on the principal that they get the best bang for the Scotties by being the big fish in a small pond.

Last year’s Scotties was held in Killarney and was considered an unmitigated success and Friesen said organizers this year are trying to model their event on that one.

“It is a regional event. We’re getting people volunteering from other areas, too. Half our timekeepers, for instance, are from Winkler,” Friesen said. “We want this place to be full for the curlers and we want this place to be full for the volunteers.

“We want people to feel like we threw a party and lots of people came.”

paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.ca