The 5th Annual Jeff Harris Curl-a-thon (www.curlathon.com) will be hosted at the Philadelphia Curling Club beginning the evening of Friday March 9th and continuing late into the night of Saturday March 10th 2012.  This year’s them is “Wild Wild West CurlaThon!”.  There will be a mini-bonspiel on Friday and Saturday, corporate bonspiel on Saturday morning and afternoon, and Open ice for those that want to try curling after 4 PM on Saturday.  There will be raffles, silent auctions, and even a Zumba Class.  Yes a Zumba Class at 10 PM on Friday.  Plus many other cool events and prizes to be won.

Jeff’s dad recently sent an open letter to the club, which best summarizes the reason for the event and the support that the Curl-A-Thon gives to Jeff through HelpHopeLive (HHL):

Dear Club Members:

I beg your indulgences for this additional load in your inboxes.  My purposes in writing this are threefold:  1). to express the Harris family’s continuing and deep appreciation for the myriad of ways our curling family has helped and supported our family, particularly Jeff, 2). recognizing that club membership has increased significantly over the last few years, to introduce newer club members, who may not know Jeff nor the origins or purposes of the Curlathon (3/9 & 3/10) to that event and 3). for those who know Jeff, to give you an update on him. Read the rest of this entry »

A great weekend showing for the three Philadelphia Curling Club and one Bucks County Curling Club teams in Broomstones Curling Club from 23 to 26 February 2012 at the Raymond Kayser 5 and Under Bonspiel.  Philadelphia team skipped by Mary Fitzgerald, vice Ian Alexander, second Kate Remolde, and lead Dan Cooper won the event with some very impressive curling and shot making by the team.  Most memorable were the draw against 3 in the 2nd, the split for 3 in the 5th, and the draw to the house for the victory in the 8th.  Another Philadelphia team winning the consolation event (D event) after a very close loss in the First Event semi-finals, the Philadelphia team came back in the D Event to win this event.  The Philadelphia team was skipped by Joe Philips, vice Jane Stayer, second Kevin Stayer and lead Tracy Shickel.  The other two Philadelphia area teams also played on Sunday, which is always the goal going into a bonspiel.  Great showing Team!  We at the Philadelphia Curling Club are extremely proud of all our teams!  Congratulations to Team Fitzgerald and Team Philips on their great victories in the Finals!

The Norfolk Curling Club founded in 1956 is located in the ‘Icebox of Connecticut,’ the high-elevation town of Norfolk.  On December 18, 2011, the Club was destroyed by arson. Plans are underway to rebuild a new facility as soon as possible.

You can help them through donations to their club at their website:  http://www.norfolkcurlingclub.org/

Team USA of Korey Dropkin (Broomstones CC), Sarah Anderson (Phildelphia CC), Thomas Howell (Plainfield CC) and Taylor Anderson (Philadelphia CC) finished the round robin a perfect 7 wins and 0 losses in the Blue Pool at the Youth Olympic Games in Innsbruck, Austria (http://innsbruck2012.curlingevents.com).  They finished the playoffs in fifth place.  Korey Dropkin’s mixed double team won a bronze medal.  All of us here are very proud of the team and their wonderful showing at this inaugural event!

USA’s Twins Aim to Win Gold for Dad

Congratulations to Team Dropkin for winning the Winter Youth Olympic Games playdowns in Grafton ND!! Skip Korey Dropkin (Broomstones CC), vice Sarah Anderson (Philadelphia CC), second Thomas Howell (Plainfield CC) and lead Taylor Anderson (Philadelphia CC).  They had to qualify by defeating another well represented Philadelphia CC team, Team Dudt, skipped by Daniel Dudt (Philadelphia CC) with his second of Cameron Vike (Philadelphia CC), and their teammates from North Dakota, vice Katie Sigurdson and lead Madeleine Shaft, in a sudden death game on Sunday.  Both teams had an impressive 7 and 1 record in the round robin prior to their one game playoff  elimination game.

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Daniel Dudt and his rink of Cameron Vike, Phil Mack and Cody Clouser took top honors at the Philadelphia Junior Bonspiel.  Daniel and Cameron, having just returned from a very impressive 7 and 2 second place finish at the Youth Olympic Trials in North Dakota, continued their excellent play with their junior men’s playdown teammates.  Twelve teams competed in the bonspiel with representatives from Nutmeg, Potomac, Plainfield, Arsley and of course Philly.  The Dudt rink’s win in the final came over another junior men’s playdown team skipped by Tyler Oliver of Philadelphia and teammates Miles Hogarth (Nutmeg), Justin Arndt (Nutmeg) and Sean Tredinnick (Philly).

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The 3rd Annual Curl-a-thon was yet again a great success. Thank you to the co-chairs of the event, Jessica Todd-Marrone and Kate Remolde for leading such a fun and jam packed 24 hours of curling. The total tally is still be counted, but we far and exceeded our goal this year to help Jeff Harris’ charity of NTAF Mid-Atlantic Spinal Cord Injury Fund (http://www.transplantfund.org/). Thank you to everyone that helped through curling, volunteering, bidding on silent auction items, and hanging out at the club for the 24+ hours of fun!

Looking for Curling in Pennsylvania?  These are the clubs in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania:

Anthracite Curling Club
Bucks County Curling Club
Pittsburgh Curling Club
Philadelphia Curling Club

PCC too far? One of our members has arranged for curling to come to the Bucks County Ice Sports Center (formerly Face Off Circle) in Warminster, PA. Ice time is reserverd on Sunday evenings in the fall for league play and instruction, and will also be teaching classes through the end of the summer. Check out the schedule of curling classes and events on the BC Ice Sports Bucks County Curling Club website: http://www.buckscountycurlingclub.org/