HIGH ACHIEVERS: Carleton Heights’ curlers playing off-site as club rebuilds after fire

By Martin Cleary

The 2025-26 season for members of the Carleton Heights Curling Club is scheduled to begin Saturday, but it will have a completely different look from start to finish.

Just the same, the curlers, whether beginners, juniors or adults, are totally thankful to and appreciate the kindness of clubs within the Ottawa Valley Curling Association that have rented sheets of ice so they can continue their rock-tossing passion.

In the early morning hours of April 24, the Carleton Heights club, which is located on Normandy Crescent, was devastated by a fire in the kitchen.

The blaze in the 70-year-old club needed 60 to 70 firefighters to bring it under control. Despite their efforts, the fire damaged most parts of the structure, including the area housing the four sheets of ice, the downstairs lockers, the kitchen, bar and lounge.

It also destroyed two furnaces, the dehumidifier system and the sand base underneath the concrete floor for the ice sheets.

While the club is working with its insurance company, applying for work permits and continuing its successful fund raising campaign to rebuild the structure, Carleton Heights officials were optimistically hopeful it would resume curling in February or March, 2026.

That was too optimistic and, as it turned out, so was the end of this month.

The amount of damage caused by the fire, smoke, soot and water was far greater than the club executive expected. Carleton Heights expects to welcome back its members in September, 2026.

“There’s progress, but it’s not lightning fast,” club vice-president Peter Garneau said in a phone interview this week. “But we’re scheduled to open next year in September.

“It’s not looking as bad anymore. They’ve shovelled it out and got rid of everything. There was a lot of water, soot and smoke (damage). It was disgusting.”

While Carleton Heights’ officials worked in the spring and summer on recovering from the devastating fire, they also contacted their OVCA peers to see if they could rent ice time to allow their members to play a 2025-26 season.

The Ottawa Hunt and Golf Club, the R.A. Curling Centre of Excellence, the City View Curling Club and the Nepean Sportsplex stepped forward to provide enough sheets of ice to accommodate all but one of its 12 regular leagues. The youth and adult learn-to-curl programs will be held at the R.A.

“We’re really lucky,” said Garneau, who added the Stats Can league will be the first Carleton Heights’ group on off-site ice at the R.A. on Saturday. “The Hunt Club stepped up with a lot of ice and the R.A. also helped us. In my opinion, if the Hunt didn’t step up with all its ice, we wouldn’t be curling this year.

“There’s a bit of disappointment that we couldn’t open even on a limited basis. But people were relieved (they could play elsewhere). People enjoy curling and the people they curl with.”

The Hunt Club, which also will play host to the Canadian men’s and women’s senior curling championships Nov. 29 to Dec. 6, has provided ice times on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays. The R.A. will welcome Carleton Heights’ curlers Saturdays and Sundays and City View offered times on Fridays.

Tom Clarke, the Carleton Heights’ ice chair, was successful negotiating ice time with the Hunt club, while Garneau, who curled at the R.A. for 24 years, secured necessary hours at his former club.

The four curling venues will rent a combined 1,300 to 1,400 hours of ice time to Carleton Heights over a 20-week period.

The club had 450 adult members before the fire, but membership has dropped to about 400 adults and youth for this season.

Carleton Heights also is looking to rent ice times for its annual women’s and fund raising events, which currently are without a home.

Carleton Heights started a GoFundMe campaign with a goal of $100,000. When the funds raised exceeded that goal, the target goal has slowly increased to $130,000. The club now has raised $126,523 for items not covered by insurance.

The club will use the GoFundMe money for uncovered restoration costs, including replacing tables, chairs, kitchen items and curling equipment. Two projects also are planned to make the bar and kitchen more functional.

There have been almost 400 donations through the GoFundMe campaign from individuals, clubs and special events. The Crystal Heart Curling Classic, a premier women’s bonspiel in Ontario, donated $6,600 and the Granite Curling Club of West Ottawa Day Ladies gave $1,000.

Carleton Heights, which raised more than $9,100 from its own golf tournament, also has experienced the generosity of the Richmond, Navan, City View, Carleton Place and Winchester curling clubs.

The R.A. Centre provided a patio area on Sept. 12 for Carleton Heights to stage its annual Meet-and-Greet session, which attracted about 80 members.

Related