World Women’s Curling Ticket Drive May 16 – 18

Nugget Column #05: Tuesday May 10th, 2016

The North Bay Granite Curling Club will host an Open House on May 16th, 17th and 18th from 4pm – 8pm in order to boost ticket sales for the 2018 Ford World Women’s Curling Championships, which would be held at Memorial Gardens in the event that the committee is successful in securing its bid.

Volunteers will be on hand to provide information, answers questions and receive payments. We hope to see you there!

Deposits of $100 (on a full event pass valued at approximately $400) have been for sale now since April 18th and are available for purchase at Memorial Gardens, City Hall Customer Service Centre, or the North Bay Granite Tennis Club. Curling fans from out of town can call City Hall at 1-800-465-1882 or mail a cheque (payable to the “City of North Bay”) to the City of North Bay Customer Service Centre, ATTN: WWCC, 200 McIntyre Street East, North Bay, ON, P1B 8H8.

The committee is aiming to sell 1500 full event passes before the middle of June when their bid package must be complete and remitted to Curling Canada. They need the community’s help bringing this goal to life, which will in turn provide North Bay the best chance at securing this major sporting event and the extremely positive impact it will have on the local economy.

In the event that the bid is unsuccessful, deposits will be refunded.

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The North Bay Granite Club debuted a new annual award at the North Bay Sports Hall of Fame Induction and Awards dinner Saturday night at the Best Western.

Doris and Dave Toswell presented the award, named in honour of late John Toswell, to an individual who has contributed significantly to the sport of curling in our community.

The inaugural recipient can be appreciated as a builder, a teacher and a competitor; but most of all he is a friend of curling…

Mark Brown was born and raised in North Bay, is a father of three, and is an alumnus of Chippewa Secondary School and Canadore College.

As an avid curler and the owner of a local financial services business, Mark combines his worlds as the club’s volunteer bookkeeper, Treasurer (2015 – 2016) and now President of the Board of Directors.

In the 2015-2016 curling season alone, Mark was also chairman of the club’s Management Committee, chairman of the 2016 Northern Ontario Men’s Curling Championship, and an instructor with the club’s Adult Learn to Curl program.

A member since 1974, Manager of the club from 1983 – 1997, bookkeeper from 1998 – 2010, and administrator from 2010 – 2013, Mark remains the “go-to” person at the club.

Outside of the club, Mark contributed four years of service to the Northern Ontario Curling Association Board of Directors as Vice-President (1994 and 1995) and President (1996 and 1997).

Mark has chaired four provincial championships: one Junior, one Senior and two Mens; and when the club hosted the Canadian Mixed Curling Championships in November 2014, Mark was Secretary and Head Statistician.

Mark is an accomplished curler having reached association level junior playdowns in 1975 and a men’s provincial as vice for Gilles Allaire in 2001. Mark has also skipped teams to a men’s association in 1988 and five senior men’s provincials (in 2010, 2012, 2013, 2015 and 2016).

Locally Mark is a three-time champion of the Scott Patterson Memorial Cash League Trophy.

Mark says he had always considered himself fortunate to work in what he felt was a dream job. It led to so many opportunities on and off the ice, in addition to meeting so many great people and lifelong friends. His most memorable moment: attending four Briers as a delegate for the Northern Ontario Curling Association.

Bobby Ray General Manager North Bay Granite Club