What is “dedicated ice”?

Dedicated ice is ice that is dedicated solely to curling–no skates allowed!  This means no divots from toe-picks or hockey stops and no strange ridges from the zamboni.  Dedicated ice is level and should behave in a substantially more consistent fashion than arena ice (especially if the last place you curled was the Ice Palace with Lilac City–that ice ranged from super slow when freezing fog rolled off the river to dangerously slippery during the warm temperatures in spring).  

There are several advantages to having our own dedicated curling facility beyond the fact that it’ll make it easier for our skips to call shots and for us to execute them:

• we’ll be able to curl during the curling season (i.e., fall/winter/spring) instead of having no ice time during winter at an arena–we’ll only have to curl in summer if we want to; 
• we’ll be able to curl at reasonable hours instead of getting third choice behind hockey and figure skating;
• we’ll be able to set our hacks more firmly so they’ll be unlikely to slip out from beneath us because we won’t have to place them and remove them every session;
• we’ll be able to leave our stones on the ice so we don’t have to waste any time bringing them down to ice temperature;
• we’ll be able to have as many leagues simultaneously as interest allows–open, beginners, under 5 (years of experience), womens’, mens’, mixed doubles, juniors, high school, college, seniors, wheelchair, and/or whatever else we might dream up;
• we’ll be able to host Learn-to-Curls whenever we desire;
• we’ll be able to host corporate and other special events; and
• we’ll be able to have practice time on the ice–either included as part of the highest tier or membership or as a per-practice fee.

The disadvantage is, of course, that this will cost money–but that’s the only one.  We need our membership to support this capital campaign with donations and through active fundraising efforts with potential donors in our communities.  If you haven’t completed the survey sent out in the previous newsletter please take the time to do so. Please reach out to the Board for more info about how you can help make dedicated ice a reality for Inland Northwest Curling Club.