Big Brothers Big Sisters holding first fundraiser of the year with Curl For Kids Sake
Article content
Big Brothers Big Sisters (BBBS) will be holding its first fundraising event of 2017 this weekend in Ingersoll.
The annual Curl For Kids Sake will be held at the Ingersoll Curling Club on Saturday, Feb. 4 will kick off the fundraising season for BBBS, with another curling event planned for Feb. 11 at the Tillsonburg Curling Club.
Heather Brekelmans, resource development coordinator for BBBS, said that this year’s theme for Curl For Kids Sake will involve Canada’s 150th birthday.
“There’s a theme each year and this year it’s celebrating Canada’s 150 years,” Brekelmans said. “Curling is definitely something we’ve considered Canadian, right up there with hockey.”
There will be a few new things at this year’s fundraiser as well, Brekelmans said there will be a new game introduced called Closest to the Button.
“If you’ve ever done a toonie toss before, the idea is you throw a curling rock and get as close to the button as you can,” she said. “Each team will chip in and it’s a game of skill. The team that gets the closest will get points per rock.”
The annual fundraiser is the first of three events that raises money for BBBS, and Brekelmans said that although this is a smaller event, usually between 60 and 100 people attend.
“Those 60 to 100 people bring in over $20,000,” Brekelmans said. “There’s an amazing amount of support for such a small event, which is why we love to do it.”
The curlers raise pledges for the event and each team is expected to raise a minimum of $500 so that the ice is covered and there’s no fundraising profit.
There are also draws at each event, and Brekelmans said that the amount of draws depends on the amount of participants.
“The idea is that you can put up to eight teams in a draw,” she said. “When I get to 32 teams we’re full. We haven’t been full in a while, we usually only get to three draws if we’re lucky, we don’t normally get to four.”
As of right now there are 22 teams registered for both events in Ingersoll and Tillonburg.
Last year the event raised around $21,000 and this year Brekelmans said they have set a goal of $20,000, but they are hoping to break that and get closer to $22,000 or $23,000.
Registration is still open for both fundraising events in Ingersoll and Tillsonburg, and anyone can register online at www.sharethefun.org or by calling (519) 485-1801 or (519) 842-9000.