Kurling for Kids marks 20th anniversary of raising funds
The 20th annual Kurling for Kids (K4K) event held Saturday at the Pointe-Claire Curling Club proved a success.
Local curlers on 14 teams raised $60,000 in the one-day bonspiel at the Pointe-Claire rink.
Nearly a dozen curling clubs in Quebec took part in the event, which raises funds for two children’s hospitals in Montreal: The Montreal Children’s and St-Justine’s.
“Between the 11 clubs, we raised $310,000 this year,” said Tom Litchfield of the Pointe-Claire Curling Club, who co-chairs the K4K event with Jeanny Houde.
“It is split equally between the Montreal Children’s and St-Justine’s,” he added.
Since its inception 20 years ago, Kurling for Kids has raised more than $3 million.
Litchfield said Kurling for Kids began as a way for a Montreal curler to say thanks for the life-saving health care his daughter received in hospital.
“His name was Robert Sears and his daughter had a major surgery. He wanted to give something back and he was a curler, so he organized a curling tournament.
“He ended up raising $6,900 that first year. And 20 years later, we’re trying to raise $400,000.”
While this year’s event fell short of that overall fundraising target, Litchfield said the bonspiel serves a worthy cause.
“So basically we go to the hospital organizations and ask them what they want. And we buy them the equipment they suggest to us. With St-Justine’s we’re on a threeyear program to buy them a machine which cost about $400,000.
“And at the Children’s it’s the same way. We’re buying some more MRI equipment for them and that’s another two- or threeyear process.”
The Glenmore and Lachine clubs were among the 10 other clubs that also took part in this year’s fundraiser.
Litchfield said the bonspiel is a popular event for club members “The adults play, the kids play. It’s for everyone.”
Every team is asked to raise $1,000 through online donations or raffle ticket sales, he said. The raffle draw is May 7. Litchfield said more fundraising will be done over the next few weeks to try to reach the fundraising target of $400,000.