Membership continues to grow at Evergreen Curling Club

by Terry Kolesar, terryk@curlingrocks.net

Curlers in the Pacific Northwest have one more place to raise their brooms to. The newly formed Evergreen Curling Club is off to a great start and looks to keep improving.

About 150 people showed up at the club’s first open house in October. At press time the membership was at 42 (30 full-time) members with anticipated growth.

“We are very pleased with the club’s growth,” said Doug Schaak, club president. “We originally agreed to lay two sheets of ice, but the open house response prompted Mount View to add two more, which allowed us to add more members. We are beyond what my initial expectations were, but my expectations are evolving all the time. I would like to have 80 members in our third year – what I see as the critical mass necessary to begin getting serious about obtaining a facility.”

The club, located at Mount View Ice Arena in Vancouver, Wash., serves curlers in both Vancouver and Portland, Ore. The facility has four sheets of ice and can accommodate 32 curlers at a time, according to Schaak.

League play began Jan. 4 with club officers hoping to fill all four sheets of ice for each session. Teams comprise a mix of experienced and new curlers to balance league play.

“I finally decided that someone was going to have to get things going and decided to become that person,” Schaak said. “I had the feeling that if I got something started, others would follow, and I was right. There is a good base of curlers in the Portland/Vancouver area, and we are just now getting to them. Once they know we’re here, it will be great to see the club grow.”

The club is offering a limited number of full memberships for the remainder of the season for $200 each, which includes 10 weeks of curling, a guaranteed spot in league play, UCSA membership, and the chance to curl with the same people each week.

Schaak, who grew up in North Dakota, began curling as a child and started the Evergreen Curling Club as a way to rediscover his curling roots. “One of my fondest memories is winning the Rolla Curling Club men’s league with my dad and my best friend in 1981-82. I have curled only one year since, in Owatonna, Minn., and am very desirous of getting back into the sport over the years,” he said.

Schaak hopes to get a dedicated facility for the club at some point. “We have some very motivated members who fully agree, and it will be interesting to see what comes up in the near future,” he said. “I love everything about curling – really, everything. I never have had a bad time on the ice and could curl every day.”