Hamilton Blind Curlers
Gary Saxon, lead for the Dundas Blind Curling Team was awarded the Bob Secord Award. In addition to playing, Gary serves at the President of the Ontario Blind Curling Association and was an instrumental person in getting Visually Impaired Curling included as a new discipline in this year’s ParaSport Winter Games.
The BOB SECORD Award recognizes an athlete who best exemplifies the spirit of the “Ontario ParaSport Games” demonstrating performance and achievements as an athlete, one who is a role model to fellow athletes and one who has demonstrated camaraderie and leadership on and off the field of competition. Bob Secord’s life long contribution to the development and advancement of people through participation in sport and athletic endeavors is well-known to Canada’s athletes, coaches, officials, administrators, organizers, volunteers and the media. In recognition of Bob’s achievements, his family decided to initiate the Bob Secord Award of Excellence to be presented at the Ontario Summer and Winter Games, the Ontario Games for the Physically Disabled (now called the Ontario ParaSport Summer Games / the Ontario ParaSport Winter Games) and the Ontario Senior Games.
Gary Saxon wins Parasport Award at Night of Inclusion Ceremonies
Fundraising Auction Night
Hamilton Blind Curlers would like to thank all those who attended or bought tickets for the auction night on March 17. Your generosity supporting our fundraising efforts is greatly appreciated. We would also like to thank all the volunteers who made the evening the success that it was - Mary Malcolmson, Laurie Gunderman, Lorraine Davison, Pat Price, Dave Sawatzky, Gary and Bonnie Saxon, Ken Mattis, and our manager, Freda Braker. Finally, we are extremely grateful to the businesses and individuals for their generous donations. A list of our donators is posted on the bulletin board in the lounge.
We are pleased to announce that we raised $3700. All excess funds will help to pay for our Provincials or Nationals next year. Both will be held in Ottawa.
Provincial Visually Impaired Curling Championships 2023
The 2023 Provincial Championship was hosted by the Toronto Blind Curlers. The event was held at the Tam Heather curling Club on Marhc 18th. There were two divisions- competitive and Recreational. Our Hamilton Team competed in the recreational division, winning 2 of 3 games. The weekend started with the coaches meeting and social on Frdiay night, March 17 and concluded with the AGM on Sunday morning. It was great to socialize with old friends.
The Scots Visit
Four curlers from Scotland, two visually impaired, one amputee, one with a brain injury visited us from March 27 - April 3. They played games at Simcoe CC Tuesday and Wednesday. Then they played Thursday afternoon at Dundas Granite, Friday morning at Glendale G&CC, and Friday afternoon back at the Granite. On the weekend they returned to Simcoe for 2 games on Saturday. On Sunday, we visited a driving range to hone our skills and then journeyed to Niagara Falls where they took the Niagara Cruise boat to the foot of the Falls. They returned home on Monday, April 3. Here is a slide show of some of highlights of the week. Plans are in the works for a blind team to visit and play in Scotland in January, 2018.
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Dundas Granite Women's Bonspiel
Our Scotland Trip
A group of curlers visited Scotland from January 9 - 19. Our group included 3 visually impaired curlers : Gary Saxon, Donna Hawkins, and Bill Watson with 3 coaches: Darlene Woods, Mary and Bill Malcolmson. We played 13 games in 6 days at 4 sites: Kinross, Kirkcaldy, Murrayfield, and Stirling. We played against various groups of Scottsih disabled curlers. After our curling, we spent 4 days outside of St. Andrews at the Elderbrun Lodges. Our accommodations and activities were arranged by Bob Drysdale and Donna Hawkins. Special thanks to Bob who drove everywhere and made 2 trips to accommodate us all.
Pictures of our trip can be found on our Facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/HamBlindCurlers16
IOur Women's club at the Dundas Granite ran a bonspiel last Saturday with any profits going to help cover the cost of our Blind team going to the Canadian Visually Impaired Curling Championships in Ottawa in February. So my wife, Mary, decided to enter a team composed of three Visually Impaired curlers with three coaches. They had a great time and actually won a game. The theme of the bonspiel was "Canada, the True North, strong and Free." Their team wore t-shirts depicting the six flags of Canada through the years on the front and "Granite Blind Curlers" in braille on the back. We had some out of club teams who were interested in how our program worked and impressed with the skill level of our curlers.
