A Day of Success

We owe our supporters great big heartfelt THANK YOU! On October 3rd, The Pittsburgh Foundation once again hosted the Pittsburgh Day of Giving, an online event designed to help area nonprofits raise much-needed money, and donations up to $1,000 were matched.

The show of support from our community was phenomenal! A very generous $24,100 was donated, and with matching, we will receive $26,416, bringing us even closer to building our own dedicated facility and our Olympic Dreams. To date, we have raised a total of nearly $447,000 in funds, equipment, and land. Way to go! That's a huge dent in what's needed, but we still need more. Let's keep the momentum going!

Did you miss the Day of Giving? That's OK! You can still donate by visiting our website (www.pittsburghcurlingclub.com) and clicking on the "Help Us Build" button. Every single dollar is appreciated!

PCC Receives a Grant!

The Pittsburgh Curling Club has received notice that it will obtain funding in the amount of $4,000 from the USCA Darwin Curtis Grant Program. The USCA was selected to administer the Darwin Curtis Fund Grant Program on behalf of The Chicago Community Trust for 2013-2014. The Darwin Curtis Fund was established to “support and encourage participation by the general public in the sport of curling.”

 This grant covers 50% of the the fee for detailed engineering drawings needed for our new dedicated curling facility. Steve Buffington, Martha Reicks, Brian Stuart, and Jacki Temple worked in both 2012 and 2013 to put together application packages. Although we were not selected to receive the grant in 2012, the original application was modified and submitted again this year, requesting funds to be used specifically for engineering work. An incredible amount of effort went into this process, and it really paid off.

Many thanks go the USCA Darwin Curtis Grant Program and our hardworking club members for everything!

Is This LONDON or Pittsburgh?!

The first night of league curling is in the books for the 2013-2014 season, and while club members made the best of the evening, conditions on the ice were about as far from ideal as they could get while still having ice.

By 9:00 PM October 5th, after an unseasonably warm day in the 80s, the air temperature had settled to only 69°F, and humidity was high due to the all-day rain storms. The only ice we have available to play on is housed in a building open to the outdoors on 2 sides, one at each end of our ice. What these factors create is FOG so thick, you can't see even 80 feet in front of you. This means skips and teammates can't see each other, making it impossible to see the calls being made or even to see the house. These factors also cause all the pebble to disappear and the ice surface to become very frosty. This means that getting any rocks down the ice involves throwing very hard and sweeping harder and faster than ever. Everyone was beat by the middle of their games last night.

This is only one of the many reasons we need our own dedicated curling facility! In our own facility, we can control humidity and temperature, ensuring that each game is playable, safe, and fun. Our goal is to have a building ready for the 2014-2015 season, with groundbreaking in March 2014. Please help us achieve that goal by DONATING TODAY to our fundraising effort. Any amount helps, and gifts of $75 or more receive a Building Sponsor pin as a thank-you.

A Major Step Forward

Civil engineer, current club member, and former club president Andy Banfield has been working very hard and for many months on our site plan and building drawings and has been attending meetings with the Adams Township Planning Commission to make sure everything we do is up to township codes and standards. While the board of commissioners awarded us preliminary approval, one last meeting with the Township Supervisors was necessary to secure full and final approval. Part of this approval process also meant that Andy was required to secure water and sewer utilities to the facility site.

We are very pleased to announce that on September 20, we received letters from both the water and sewer authorities approving our site for utilities! The Township Supervisor's meeting was held at 7:30 PM on September 23rd, and Andy presented the updated and revised plans as well the approval letters from the utilities. After a few very basic questions about the plans, we were given unanimous FINAL APPROVAL!

Two major steps remain to completing our path to our very dedicated curling facility. First is to transfer the title of the land donated to us, and second is to raise the remaining funds needed to start building. 

All donations are deeply appreciated and welcome. To donate, please visit our donation page or contact Building Committeee Chair, Brian Stuart (brian.stuart@pittsburghcurlingclub.com
412-916-4100) or Club President, Steve Buffington (steve.buffington@pittsburghcurlingclub.com
412-445-6958) Donations may also be submitted by check, payable to: The Pittsburgh Curling Club  (note on memo line: Building Fund).
 
Pittsburgh Curling Club
Building Fund
P.O. Box 16095
Pittsburgh PA 15242

Another Step Closer!

Back in March, Andy Banfield met with the code enforcement officer of Adams Township to clarify rights of way measurements so that he could adjust the layout of the site to reduce flooding impact. A parking analysis and some sort of storm water management plan still needed to be done, which Andy worked on. A sketch plan was accepted and presented to the Adams Township planning commission.

Meanwhile, we selected Larry Renninger, who is the owner of L.C. Renninger Group in Beaver, and has extensive experience in metal building construction (he even worked on part of RMUISC) to be our building designer. The building committee showed him our plans and estimates, and he confirmed that our estimated costs are accurate. He drew up an initial design package for us and it was presented for the committee’s review. He confirmed that he would be willing to work with us on a “sweat equity” basis to help us keep our building costs low.

As of August 7^th, an important milestone was reached: Andy Banfield presented the building plan to the Adams Township Planning Commission, and we received Plan Approval. They would like some more landscaping at the front of the building and they would also like us to enter in an agreement to pave the parking lot within 24 months of opening for business. This is projected to save us a lot of upfront cost. Next up will be Supervisors’ approval, and then we are good to go forward with construction as far as the township is concerned!

The next crucial step of the building committee is fundraising. Members of the committee have been working hard developing various strategies to realize our goal. We are working on ways to interest financial institutions, write grant proposals, and seek out corporate funds. Any and all ideas are welcome!

Welcome to Our Blog!

Welcome to the blog for the Pittsburgh Curling Club's (PCC) efforts to build a dedicated facility for curling in western Pennsylvania. I'd like to offer up a big thanks to Jacki for taking the initiative to make this site possible.

It's our intention to use this space to keep you informed of our progress as we work through the details of obtaining funding, building design, site planing, permitting, site preparation, and construction. We'll post pictures, drawings, and details as they develop.

This site will also provide a forum for people to voice support for the project and tell us why they want us to build. There are many good reasons why PCC members want our own facility ranging from playing on quality ice, to more curling opportunities, to a better atmosphere for broomstacking. And, I'll bet we discover some new reasons that many of us hadn't thought of.

I'll start by throwing out a reason for why I support this project. Dedicated ice allows the PCC to control our own destiny. Make no mistake, curling at the RMU Island Sports Center has allowed the PCC to succeed and even thrive for 11 years. We would not be in existence without their invaluable support. But, this past season reminded us that we aren't guaranteed any ice time from season to season. As things are, we are unable to expand our programs and we can't attract new members. The status quo is no longer acceptable.

With our own building, we'll set our own ice schedule and determine the balance between league curling for members and open ice to be used as practice time or for public curling to attract new curlers to the club. In this way, we can achieve our mission which says in part - "To teach, develop, promote, encourage the sport of Curling ... by creating public awareness and appreciation for the sport."

Steve Buffington

PCC - President

Relieve Stress & Support Pittsburgh Curling

HOW COOL ARE THESE?!! These squeezable “stress” rocks are now available for a club donation of $10 each. We’ll have them at Tropicurl and any other upcoming events as a low cost way for members and non-members to donate to our club. You may also contact Jacki Temple for orders at jackitemple@netscape.net.

Many thanks to Beth Cubbison for finding and designing this excellent fundraiser!