2014 BC Provincial Wheelchair Curling Championships

Best selfie ever!

This past weekend, the BC Wheelchair Championships took place in my community. When I heard we were going to be hosting, I called our local club and offered to volunteer. As it turns out, I was the only outsider (non-curler, non-club member) to be involved. That said, the Coquitlam Curling Club members were incredibly friendly and easy to work with. 

I was really grateful for the knowledge I'd gained serving two terms on the city's Universal Access-Ability Advisory Committee around accessibility and inclusion-it served me well for this event and was something valuable I brought to the table.

Friday night, there was a banquet for the athletes, sponsors and organizing committee members. The guest speaker was Richard Peter, a 5 time Paralympian and gold medalist in Wheelchair Basketball at the London 2012 Paralympics. We shared a table at dinner and he really is a lovely man.

Richard was kind enough to pass his medal around so everyone could enjoy it. It really is a thing of beauty.

While the athletes were curling over the weekend, I was entrusted with looking after Rumour, the service dog. She is so sweet. I have a very soft spot for Labs, so I was more than happy to have her keep me company. 

Rumour's athlete was playing on team MacDonald and they made it to the finals, only to be defeated by team Neighbours. Team Neighbour's skip is Paralympian Darrell Neighbour. Team Neighbour will be going to the Canadian Championships in Montreal in April. I wish them the best of luck!

This was the first time the new Poirier Sports & Recreation Centre has hosted a wheelchair event and I think it went exceedingly well. It's great to see our community hosting accessible sports events like this. I hope we see more in the future!