Pam Dechief, was in charge of the volunteer recruitment and the schedule for the Tankard.

“I was also in charge of the Junior Star’s Experience program and getting the school groups coming to the curling this weekend.”

In regards to the Tankard itself, “Its all exciting, we’ve had overwhelming support from our local community volunteers. All of our volunteer spots were full 2 weeks ago.”

When asking her about what the Junior Stars Program is, “The Junior Stars Experience Program is where 16 local youth entered into the competition at DiscoverEstevan.com. And they were selected to be honorary members of each of the curling teams that were participating in the SaskTel Tankard. We had kids enter from Estevan, Oxbow, Lampman, Redvers, Carlyle, and throughout the whole Southeast corner of the province. They were chosen and Wednesday January 3lst, they had there Junior Star experience where they received a jacket from our sponsor First line Plumbing and Heating. When the kids arrived at Affinity Place they were given their jackets, and were given a bag of loot that was collected for them by our other sponsors here in Estevan. Our Junior Stars ranged in age from 7-15, and their curling experience mixed from first year curling to 5 or 6 years of curling. So most of these kids had a very good knowledge of curling. When they came here, we had a volunteer that met with the Junior Stars, they got their souvenir jackets and then went down to the locker room area and met with the teams. They went out on the ice with the teams during their warm-up. The teams were overwhelmingly supportive of the Junior Stars, they let them participate in their teams talk, showed them how they do timing. They showed them tips and tricks, high fived them, the teams were remarkable on how they interacted with the kids. Were very proud of that.”

“After the games started, the Junior Stars were taken by our volunteer chaperones on a tour of Affinity Place. First stop they met the ice-maker and he explained everything there was to making the ice for curling, its quite the process. And then they went up to the timing booth and talked to our officials , and saw how timer’s worked. They had a tour of the kitchen area and came out to see their Junior Wall of Fame in Affinity Place on the concourse. All the kids had a fabulous time, they were thrilled, we had kids that night who wouldn’t go to bed until they knew if there team had won or lost. We even had kids that mentioned they would rather go to curling than to school.” Pam was not promoting missing school, but she was glad that they were so excited for the weekend of events.

“All the Junior Stars participated in the opening ceremonies, and marched into the arena with the bagpipers and with their teams.”
Throughout the next couple days they would host about 600 students, from Estevan, Lampman and Macoun. They’ve been wildly cheering teams on, and learning a little bit about curling. And CURLSASK representatives have talked with the kids and they will help fill seats and create a great atmosphere.

Ashley Howard spent time over at the schools, getting students ready to cheer on their favourite team. And pitting the boys and girls against each other was a great idea.