Weyburn man’s photo earns rink $10,000 renovation grant

A fresh sheet of ice might not be the only thing coming to the Weyburn Curling Rink soon.
The rink was awarded a $10,000 renovation grant by Curling Canada after one of its members won a #KeepCurling contest.

Ken Kopeck’s photo of him and his family during a Boxing Day bonspiel in 2019 turned out to be the winning entry.

“My wife and I were watching the Scotties tournament back in February. She entered a couple of pictures into the Canadian contest – the contest was open to everyone right across Canada to submit pictures and promote (curling). We were fortunate enough the one that we sent got picked,” Kopeck said.

When he was first alerted about his win, Kopeck admitted he didn’t believe it was real.

“I didn’t even open it the first day — I didn’t know what to think of it — so the second day we opened it and did some checking on it and made sure it was a legit deal and then the feeling sunk in. It was a very nice win,” Kopeck said.

The contest was open to people across the country and also raised money for youth curling programs.

The rink’s board will need to meet to decide what to do with the funds.

“I think the club can use it, same as every other club for renovations or remodelling or whatever,” Kopeck said. “It’s been a tough year for all the clubs being shut down in December and it will go to a good cause and hopefully pay some renovation bills for them.

“I’m not sure how old the building is. They’ve kept it up pretty good but there’s definitely some windows or something else that the time is up on that needs replacing so this will go to a good cause.”