LITTLE CURRENT—Echos of hurry! Hurry! Hurry! reverberated across the ice pads as 12 teams vied for top honours at the first Hovingh Memorial Curling Bonspiel held at the Little Current Curling Club over the weekend. Upstairs, laughter and conversation was the order of the day as friends old and new mingled.
The event was a success by any measure, raising a whopping $10,000 despite the busy Christmas season, thanks in part to sponsors that included Manitoulin Transport, the Northeast Town, Re/Max, Technica Mining, ANMAR, Orr’s Valumart, Ontario Provincial Police Association (OPPA) as well as OPPA branches 13 and 14, Sudbury Police Association, Manitoulin Brewing and Little Current RONA Building Centre.
“Grateful, so, so grateful for any good that comes out of this, right?” said Marc Hovingh’s widow Lianne when asked for her thoughts on the bonspiel effort. “Marc would have loved it.”
The $10,000 raised at the event is being presented to Manitoulin Family Resources.
The Robert rink, winners of the event, took some light-hearted teasing from the room due to the presence within its ranks of national level curlers. “Next year we will encourage a little more spread out among the teams,” laughed event organizer Kyle Chandler.
Mr. Chandler provided a heartfelt thanks to his organizational team, the curlers and the event sponsors during the awards ceremony. “This couldn’t happen without you,” he said, giving a special shout-out to the Bickell family. “We really wanted to hold this event here in Little Current. That was important to us.”
It is hoped that the bonspiel will continue to be an annual fixture on the Island, continued Mr. Chandler.
