Ice Pak tight-knit group

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This article was published 07/03/2019 (2585 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It was the love of curling that brought a group of volunteers to the ice, but it’s the friendships they’ve made that keep them coming back — some for more than three decades.

A group of the volunteers who call themselves the Ice Pak prepped and scraped the ice together at the Labatt Brier in 1982, and kept coming together through the years as various curling championships rolled through Brandon, including the Scotties Tournament of Hearts in 1993 and 2002, the 1995 Men’s and Women’s World Championships and the Canadian Olympic curling trials in 1997.

This year, they’re back on the ice together once again for the Tim Hortons Brier, knowing that for some of them, it could be their last time volunteering.

“There’s a satisfaction of getting it done,” said director of arena, rocks and ice Greg Rabe, 64, who has been volunteering since the ’82 Brier. “We’ve got a good group of guys and we have a lot of fun doing it. … We’ve had the most fun out of all the volunteers.”

“It’s about socializing, the camaraderie, there’s a little bit of work but some hijinks too,” said Bill Campbell, 71, who has also been volunteering since the ’82 Brier.

“It’s a chance to give back to the club and the community,” added Ken North, 63. “Somebody has to do it, why not us?”

The days can be long — they’re at the rink every day for two weeks, from approximately 6 a.m. to however late they’re needed — the setup and take down is a little easier than it used to be, Rabe said.

During the World Championships, for example, Rabe remembers building the scaffoldings themselves and adding extra stands for seating.

Now, Curling Canada sends them everything they need to put together with a template of how to do it.

The game itself has evolved over the years as well.

“It was just a hit game at the time, we still had corn brooms (at the ’82 Brier),” Campbell said with a laugh.

The players have also become more professional, North said.

While the enthusiastic crowds have been decent this year, Campbell said it’s nothing like what it used to be.

“(The Brier) wasn’t televised daily … so if you wanted to see curling, you had to come,” Campbell said. “This place was packed every day, every draw.”

“When I was younger, people went to the Brier 10 or 12 years in a row, no matter where it was,” Rabe said. “They just went for the party, but nowadays it’s too costly.”

All three men are curlers themselves — members of the Brandon Curling Club — and longtime lovers of the sport.

North has been curling since he was four or five years old, he said, when he would get on the ice after his mother and father curled and push the rock out of the hack with two hands.

Campbell started curling in high school, coming into Brandon with a group of friends to learn how to curl in the old arena, he said.

Rabe curls competitively, heading to Stonewall for the Manitoba Credit UnionsMasterWomen’s and Men’sProvincialChampionship next week.

“It’s a nice, social sport,” North said. “It takes a lot of skill but win or lose, most people are fairly friendly. You meet new people.”

While new generations continue to come up in curling, following the footsteps of parents and grandparents, Rabe said there’s not as many people curling as there used to be.

And as the older generation of volunteers start calling each championship their last, the need for younger volunteers is becoming more apparent.

“Our group in Brandon, we pride ourselves as being the best Ice Pak that these guys will work with, and they tell us that, maybe they’re just trying to make us feel good,” Rabe said. “We know where to be, we know what to do … We need some younger guys in their 20s and teens to get involved.”

Rabe’s son has followed in his footsteps, he said, volunteering for the Ice Pak as well.

Rabe said he might volunteer again in the future, depending on what comes to Brandon next and when.

“When you watch the professionals do it, it gets you into the spirit of the game a little bit,” Rabe said. “It feels good to be a part of.”

» edebooy@brandonsun.com

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