Curling for a Cure bonspiel raises almost $50K

A record number of 32 Westman teams played in a Minnedosa curling bonspiel over the weekend, raising nearly $50,000 to support cancer patients and families.

The seventh annual Curling for a Cure bonspiel took place at the Minnedosa Curling Club from Friday to Sunday evening.

Event organizer Chad Yanchycki said the bonspiel has seen a growing amount of community support, with next year’s team registration already fully booked.

“Everybody’s been touched by cancer at some point, whether they’ve had it, or had a loved one who had it or friend who’s had it,” Yanchycki told the Sun.

“We’re all rallying around the same thing, and we just want to help people that are struggling and families that are struggling.”

A total of $49,117 will be split evenly between the two recipients — the Candlelighters Childhood Cancer Support Group and the Neepawa Community Cancer Program, he said.

Last year, with 24 teams instead of 32, the bonspiel raised $40,060. The funds went toward easing the financial burden of families with sick children during their lengthy hospital stay and buying a new fleet of heated treatment chairs for chemo patients.

Yanchycki said this year’s funds will continue to pay for things like hospital parking passes for the support group, but it’s yet to be determined how Neepawa’s program will use the funds.

Over the past seven years, Curling for a Cure has raised $183,728 for cancer, Yanchycki said. Money collected from the $160 team entry fees, silent auction, 50/50 raffle tickets and hundreds of sponsors support the cause.

The event honours Yanchycki’s grandfather, Nick Melnyk, who beat kidney and prostate cancer but died from a rare form of skin cancer in 2018.

Melnyk, who passed away at age 75, lived in Minnedosa and farmed near Sandy Lake, Yanchycki said. He was a strong advocate for cancer research and donating to cancer patient programming that helped him.

“He actually passed away — it was a couple days after our first-ever event — so he never got to see it, unfortunately. But he’d be pretty happy and proud of what we’ve accomplished,” Yanchycki said.

He said it means a lot to him and his family to organize the event in Melnyk’s honour.

In its first year, Curling for a Cure had 14 participating teams and fundraised $3,500. Since then, the event has steadily grown, with team registration selling out in advance for a second consecutive year.

“It just keeps growing with that support,” Yanchycki said, adding that he’s happy to have so many teams eager to participate every year.

He said 31 of 32 teams are returning to play next year, which opened a slot for a team on the waitlist to join.

Currently, he doesn’t plan to accommodate more teams. Doing so would require the weekend event to add more days or a second facility.

This year’s bonspiel champion, Darcy Bialas, who played skip on Team Rockin’ the Fields of Minnedosa, said raising money for cancer means more to him than winning five games.

The winning team gets its name put on a trophy that stays with the Yanchycki family and then the individual players receive a wooden curling rock with their team’s name and Melnyk’s name, Bialas said.

“Of course, you want to have a good time and do the best you can — that’s great — but the No. 1 reason is for the cause,” he said.

“This year really hit home for a lot of people.”

Bialas said he has participated in Curling for a Cure since it began to support the Melnyk and Yanchycki families, but this year felt different as some of his teammates recently lost a family member to cancer.

Bialas said he has also been impacted by cancer.

“Just in the last two and a half months, I lost my uncle to cancer and my second cousin, who would have just turned 51 the weekend of the bonspiel, to cancer,” he said.

Both Bialas and his father have also had melanoma, a form of skin cancer, but they didn’t need radiation or chemotherapy, he said.

When the cheque was presented on Sunday to the Candlelighters Childhood Cancer Support Group and the Neepawa Community Cancer Program, there wasn’t a dry eye in the room, he said.

The event brings people together and allows them to share their stories and comfort each other, which helps people know they aren’t alone, Bialas said.

His team is registered to continue showing their support next year.

» tadamski@brandonsun.com