Greeting to all OCC members,
I hope you are enjoying the 2025/26 season to date. Our league Directors and Convenors have been working diligently to ensure that all the leagues are well planned out and run without a hitch. To all of our Directors and Convenors…Thank you!
I would also like to send a special thank you to all of our staff. Ian, Casey, Scott and his team, and of course our wonderful bar staff who all work hard to ensure that every time we step into the club and onto the ice we enjoy a ‘best in class’ experience.
It has been and will continue to be an extremely busy year at the OCC. We have seen another successful Gathering Bonspiel run by Rick Brady and his volunteer group and Scott Cooke and Andrew Skelton once again took the reigns on a fun filled United We Curl Bonspiel. It looks like all of our upcoming club bonspiels will once again be sell outs and I congratulate all of the organizing committees on their efforts!
Scott and Melissa Foster are off to Ottawa for the Senior National Championships November 29th – December 6th. Scott will be playing 3rd for the Mike Harris Team and Melissa will be playing 2nd on Team Sherry Middaugh. I know I speak on behalf of everyone at the OCC when I say how incredibly proud we are of them and wish them the very best in their pursuit of a National Championship. I think we can find the room in the lounge for a new banner or two!! Have a great time Melissa and Scott!
The OCC will also be hosting the 2026 Ontario Seniors Championships March 11- 15 showcasing the provinces top ‘veteran’ curling talents. I’m hoping the club will be well represented! Our organizing committee is working behind the scenes to ensure it is a great success. I encourage all of our members to try and make it to the club and take in this wonderful event.
As part of the on-going upgrading of our facilities. On December 22nd and 23rd we will be converting our archaic analog camera system to a fully digital system. With this system will come enhanced graphics and imagery but also the capability to live stream games on sheets 3 and 6. Initially, these two sheets will be our TV sheets. They will be equipped with 4K PTZ (Point Tilt Zoom) cameras so that we can continually show games on those sheets via YouTube but we will also have the ability to produce the games. This system is long overdue and we look forward to maintaining this club as best in class.
Hard to believe but Christmas is just around the corner and in the spirit of giving, the Oakville Curling Club has donated surplus funds from our OLG Bingo Fund to 2 very worthy local charities. Our past president, James Francolini, who volunteers for the Fare Share Food Bank, presented a cheque in the amount of $2,500 to that organization last week and Ian and I had the pleasure of presenting a cheque to Gary O’Neill, Executive Director of the Kerr Street Mission in the amount of $5,500. Both of these organizations do tremendous work and rely on donations to assist people that need the support of their community. I have included a link below to both of these charities and would encourage members to have a look at the work they do and support them in anyway you can, especially at this time of year.
https://www.oakvillefoodbank.com/
That’s it for the time being. Thank you to all of our members for your continued support and on behalf of the Board of Directors and OCC staff, Merry Christmas, Happy Holiday and a Happy New Year! Look forward to seeing you at the club.
Greg Irwin