The Peace Arch Curling Club marked its 50th year Saturday night, and celebrated the milestone with an event at its Centennial Park location.
Saturday night’s soirée was attended by a host of PACC members both past and present, as well as visiting dignitaries including Surrey-White Rock MLA Gordon Hogg, who emphasized the important role the sport plays in the health and well-being of local residents, particularly seniors.
Those sentiments were also emphasized by event sponsor Cedric Gagne, general manager of Murray Hyundai White Rock and also a curler himself.
“PACC continues to be a gathering place, a place to make new friends… a place to be active,” he said in a news release issued by the club. “It’s not just a curling club – it’s community.”
The evening festivities also included the retelling of stories by some of the club’s longest-serving members, including Bill and Sharron Wallace, who curled in the city during the mid-1950s, when curlers played out of the Silver Moon rink – a converted dance hall and roller-skating rink along the White Rock waterfront.
In 1966, the new curling facility was approved for its current site at Centennial Park on North Bluff Road.
“I was there on June 10, 1967. I still remember then-mayor Douglas at the controls of the front-end loader turning the first sod,” recalled Bill Wallace.
The Peace Arch Curling Club has produced a handful of notable curlers in 50 years, the releases notes, including the Tony Folk rink – which represented B.C. at the 1961 Brier playdowns in Calgary – and the Zbeetnoff rink, members of which were named provincial junior ladies championships in both 1999 and 2000.
The club will continue to celebrate its milestone birthday throughout the curling season, capped by a 50th anniversary Daffodil Tea on March 2.