By Tim Pattyson
The Nokia Brier is coming to the Ottawa region for the third time since its inception and local volunteers are making sure the event sweeps in and out of the house without a hitch.
The Ottawa Valley Curling Association (OVCA) is the official host of the Brier, Canada’s national men’s curling championship, which will take place at the Civic Centre from March 3-11. Centretown’s Ottawa Curling Club (OCC) and Rideau Curling Club (RCC) are the two largest clubs among the 47 that make up the OVCA.
More than 1,000 volunteers will be running every event during the Brier week.
They will be involved in activities such as security, officiating and accommodation.
Paul Zachau, the event coordinator for the Brier, says volunteers are essential to the success of the event.
“We absolutely couldn’t run the Brier without them,” says Zachau. “We’ll be using probably 1,000 to 1,200 people as volunteers during the event.”
Ray Pollock is in charge of volunteer recruiting for the Brier.
He has also curled out of the Ottawa Curling Club for nearly 20 years. He says a large number of the volunteers are from the OCC and RCC.
“There’s probably close to 300 from the two clubs,” says Pollock. That is by far the largest groupof volunteers from any two curling clubs in the OVCA.
Cheryl McBain, a competitive curler at the OCC for 21 years and the vice-president of media and promotions for the Brier, says local support is the key to success for an event of this size.
“It’s important for the Brier to have strong member clubs such as the Ottawa and the Rideau to draw on to support the event,” says McBain.
Her time alone has amounted to an extra 15 hours per week, above and beyond her day job as general manager of the Central Canadian Exhibition.
Without a significant number of volunteers from those two clubs, the Brier would never have even come close to its goal of 1,200 volunteers.
In contrast to the sea of volunteers, only four paid staff are working on the event.
Pollock says it’s natural to have such a high ratio of volunteers to staff.
“I doubt the Canadian Curling Association could hire people and make money on it, or at least break even,” he says.
The use of volunteers also allows the event to turn a profit, which, in part, goes back to the people who made it happen, says Zachau.
“The OVCA sees some of the proceeds from the Brier which they in turn use for junior development and things like that (improvement of facilities and new equipment) in the community,” he says.
Money for junior curlers isn’t the only benefit local clubs will see from hosting the Brier, says McBain.
“It has a large economic impact because there’s a lot of tourists that come for this,” she says. “And memberships in the clubs often increase in the fall.”
During the week, volunteers will put in as many hours as they can and will only get to see limited action at the event, say Pollock.
Expected attendance for the Brier is expected to break the old attendance mark of 130,000 set in 1993.
They may only catch the likes of World Champions such as Al Hackner and Wayne Middaugh once during the whole week.
However, their greatest reward might be seeing the event go smoothly.
“If the volunteers were not there, it would not happen. Period,” says Pollock.