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.