I4

Robert LaFrance
the victoria star

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PERTH-ANDOVER - Unless there is a rush of paying curlers in the next few weeks, there will be no curling this winter at the Legion Curling Club in Perth-Andover.

Last week the club president, Steve Leonard, told the Victoria Star that there were not enough curlers and therefore not enough volunteers to continue the programs for adults, juniors, and Little Rocks. Of those three, only the Little Rock curlers have kept their numbers up in the past few winters.

"The numbers are down so low that we can't get people to help. I've gotten busier myself so that this winter my time is limited for actually doing anything with curling," Leonard said last week. "The curling club is not making enough money to keep it alive. We're just barely scraping by every year," he continued, "and everybody's worried that if we do try and get it going one more year we're going to end up putting ourselves in the hole. Right now we just have a little bit of money, enough to handle things that come up unexpectedly."

Leonard went on to say it wasn't a question of giving up, but they must face reality.

"If there's so little interest in it, then why even get it going?" he said. "The Legion feels that if it's not making any money for them, then why do it when they can use the space for something else? It's a shame to say that, but there's just not enough interest."

He said the Perth-Andover Curling Club might be back another year.

"I won't say this is forever, but for this year it's not possible. If we had 40 kids interested in it, then we'd have all those parents for volunteers to help out with other things, but when you have four kids and their parents, they would have to do it all. The same with adult curling; there's just not enough people to support it.

"As of right now, we (the Legion) have no intention of putting in any ice this year. It's a shame to see it happen. We have a pretty nice facility. It's just that numbers have been dwindling for the past few years and it's not worthwhile to do it any more."