Norfolk Curling Club: ‘We can’t stop trying’

NORFOLK — Members of the Norfolk Curling Club were in Salisbury last weekend, offering demonstrations of their sport and raising money (and awareness) for rebuilding their facility, which was destroyed in an arson fire last December.The club members have been without a rink for the past year, and have traveled up and down the East Coast, curling as guests at other clubs.Last weekend, for the Salisbury Winter Sports Association’s Alpine Winter Carnival, the curling club members built their own miniature outdoor rink. They came out with brooms and sweepers that looked borrowed from a (very clean) utility closet and used them to show how the ice is cleaned to allow the heavy granite curling stones to float along the frozen rink.The original home of the Norfolk Curling Club was built in 1956. The fire last December not only destroyed the rink and clubhouse, it also destroyed all the players’ equipment, trophies and memorabilia.While devastated by the arson, club members have turned their energy toward the hard work of raising money to rebuild.On Oct. 5, the club held a ceremony to break ground for a new clubhouse, which will be built partially on the same location as the old one, on Golf Drive.The building will be completely made of steel; the old clubhouse was made out of wood and steel.Club President Mary Fanette said there has been substantial progress made on construction of the building. The foundation is complete and the steel frame has been erected.Fanette said over the next few weeks the building’s roof and side panels will be added and then, she said, “Construction will stop until we get better weather, in the spring.” At that point, probably in April, “an ice machine and an ice rink will be installed in the building.”Fanette said she is excited with the progress on the new building.“I drive up to the club’s location everyday to see what’s going on. Right now I’m very hopeful that we’ll get back to curling in Norfolk later this year.”Funds are still needed to complete the construction, though.The project is expected to cost $1.5 million.“We’ve raised about three quarters of what we need so far, and will continue to raise funds throughout the rest of the year.“We do have some flexibility and can hold off on certain things if we can’t afford them. We don’t need a fully functioning kitchen right away, for example.”Fanette said the club hopes to be up and open again before the Winter Olympics in February 2014.“The Olympics is a very important time for the club because people will be watching curling on television and many of them will want to find a local curling club and try it for themselves,” she said. “The Olympics provides a very good source of membership for the club.”The demonstrations at the Alpine Winter Carnival helped as well, although with temperatures in the low 20s there wasn’t a huge turnout.“We held the demonstration at a specially made ice rink to let people throw a stone and get a sense of the game,” Fanette said. “Hopefully, we got a few new members and some donations from it. “We can’t stop trying. We have to keep going.”To make a donation and to learn more about the Norfolk Curling Club, go to www.rocknorfolk.com.