Day 1

It’s finally here! Eighty junior curlers from across Canada and the U.S. have arrived at the Ottawa Curling Club for the fourth annual ThinkBeef.ca Team Homan Junior Curling Camp.

Day 1 brought campers from as far as British Columbia, Pennsylvania, Quebec, Northern Ontario and all across Southern Ontario and the Ottawa Valley together for a fun first night.

Our goal is to not only pass along our knowledge and curling expertise but we also set out to lift up all of our campers to be future ambassadors and leaders off the ice and champions of the game. We start camp off by reminding our campers to treat one another with kindness and respect while building lasting friendships throughout the on and off ice training over three days.

The first presentation of camp was an interactive nutrition talk by Carol Harrison. Carol is a Registered Dietitian who authored Fuel Up for Fun. This great resource for parents, coaches and active young people is available for free online. Campers learned the importance of fueling up before, during and after physical activity.

Our 2019 campers enjoyed a chili dinner provided by ThinkBeef in custom made chili mugs which all campers got to keep. Campers also went home with custom made camp water bottles, camp t-shirts and lots of material from just Day 1.

After dinner groups worked with Adam Kingsbury to learn about mindfulness.

All campers brushed off the summer rust with practice rocks and a two-end scrimmage on our five sheets of ice at the Ottawa Curling Club.

We loved meeting all of the new faces and seeing so many returning campers and familiar faces from previous years and from crowds at many of our events. Tomorrow will be joined by two-time Brier champion and World champion Brett Gallant along with Hall of Famer Earle Morris and Mark Hatfield

We finished the night encouraging everyone to get a good night rest ahead of a busy Day 2 and overheard one camper’s mother at pick-up, “I asked him how he rated his first night from 1 to 10… and he said 1,000.”