Community Corner

Why do we Skip to Equip? Our Story

Over 13 years ago, a group of likeminded women wanted to host a weekend women’s curling bonspiel as it had been a few years without a weekend event. However, rather than cash prizes or stuff for the winners, this group of ladies decided it would be better to donate the proceeds from the event to a local charity, but which one? With various experience in fundraising events, such as Relay for Life (for Cancer Care Canada) the women thought that keeping money local in our town and area would make for an attractive event.  These caring women curlers wanted to raise funds to “Equip” the new modern hospital the town had recently benefited from. Through support from the late Harvey Friesen, the committee secured a corporate Title Sponsorship with Bearskin Airlines, and the annual fundraiser “Skip to Equip Classic” was initiated, with all proceeds going directly to the local Meno Ya Win Health Centre Foundation.
What is Skip to Equip? (For those who may not know, curling team captains are also known as the “Skip” of the team).  With planning starting early in the calendar year, the committee plans and executes a 3-day ladies bonspiel (curling tournament) for 20-24 teams. Each curling participant is expected to raise pledges to support the event. In the months leading up to the event, local businesses, groups and organizations sponsor and donate generous items for auction, and 50/50 purple lottery tickets are sold.  A few days prior to the event, free learn to curl sessions are offered and the auction subcommittee starts hustling to pull together all the amazing auction donations into fabulous prizes for bids.
The event is hosted at the Sioux Lookout Golf and Curling Club, where the over 100 ladies begin to gather late afternoon on the Friday for their first of five 5 end (skins format) curling games, followed by sponsored post-game appetizers and entertainment.
Saturday’s agenda includes 3 curling games per team, where at some point throughout the day most ladies will dress up and curl in costumes according to the annual theme. Concurrently, many weekend volunteers are bustling about in the club selling lotteries, tracking the auction, cleaning and prepping the ice, prepping lunch and all sorts of other activities to keep the ladies happy and having a great time. After the last game on Saturday the Ladies gather in costumes and play silly games and enjoy the camaraderie of the event. The massive silent auction closes at 10 PM and the party gets rolling, often with a dance social.

Public and spectators are most welcome to attend throughout the weekend, to take in the curling, contribute to the fundraising, partake in the fun and even stay late into the evening social, often reaching the standing capacity of the club.
Sunday mornings are a little subdued with some slower and stiffer moving curlers, after a late night of fun, but the ladies are troopers and rarely does the 9 AM game start late. One last match per team and the committee starts prepping for the closing ceremonies. Final lotteries are completed, guest speakers trickle in, and after the last game around 2:30 PM, folks start filling the seats for the closing ceremony and anticipated cheque reveal.
Closing ceremonies often consist of final acknowledgements and comments from the committee, guest speakers from the foundation and the current event Title Sponsor, who we are pleased to have as Home Hardware Sioux Lookout since 2023. Followed by the announcement of the purple ticket and the purple jacket winners, and finally the much-anticipated cheque reveal.  The complete tallied amount of all proceeds from this event is donated to the health center foundation. The committee toasts to all their hard work and another successful year, followed by a photo op, then everyone disperses on a high note! 
After months of planning and conferring together, the committee is always left elated with the fundraising results, and over the many successful years of planning since 2010, it has become pretty tickety-boo for these ladies. Participants often comment about the fun of the event, and their appreciation to be part of such a great cause. After 12 years of fundraising, this event has raised over $910,000. The committee remains optimistic that 2024 will be the year we all pull through as a community and region to hit the $1,000,000 mark in total proceeds contributed to the foundation from this event. Hence this years’ theme of “If we had a Million Dollars”. Costumes should be interesting. Sure to be a good time as always adding wonderful memories to our story. We hope you join us Nov. 8 – 10.
Interested? Don’t miss out! Team registration is open and there is still room for more participants. Email skiptoequip@gmail.com or call Muriel at 807-737-8982. To make a contribution to the event, please contact Jackie at 807-737-9065. You can also find our event on Facebook.  
Submitted by Natalie Popovic, Committee Member