by Kathy Maloney
One never knows where the path of volunteering will take you. In 2010, I volunteered at my first Paralympic Games in Vancouver, Canada. While I was there and working at the Cross Country/Biathlon venue, I had the chance to meet and get to know some wonderful athletes, coaches and volunteers. One of my fellow volunteers kept going on about his curling league, and that he was missing games to be working at the Paralympic Games. I teased him, saying that he spoke about curling like my parents used to talk about their bowling leagues when I was younger. He then wagered a bet that there was curling within 20 miles of my house and I assured him he didn’t know the Boston area, and we didn’t have curling.
The week I got back to work in Boston, the halls of my university had signs for a trip to try curling in Weston. So clearly I was wrong, but I never thought much about it after that. Fast forward to the Sochi Paralympic Games in 2014, and I once again had the honor of serving as a volunteer for the Games and this time, I was stationed at the Ice Cube venue, home to the Wheelchair Curling competitions. I guess my time had come to learn a bit about this sport that our neighbors to the north enjoy so much.
While working at the Curling venue, I met the coaches and athletes from Team USA. That was where my connection to Tony Colacchio, the Cape Cod Curling Club and Wheelchair Curling began. That summer I went down to Falmouth to volunteer at the Cape Cod Wheelchair Summerspiel.
That Summerspiel’s teams included the silver and bronze medal teams from the Sochi Games, as well as wheelchair athletes from across the US and Canada. It was an intense week of learning the intricacies of the sport of curling and the community of wheelchair athletes that share that sport. From that week, I began curling myself. I found the community and the sportsmanship to be very exciting, fun and friendly! In addition to becoming a curler, I continued to work with and help Tony with the Wheelchair program.
Tony Colacchio grew the wheelchair curling program on the Cape as well as helping to promote the sport up and down the east coast, from Maine to Florida. Every summer we would welcome back the wheelchair athletes for our annual Summerspiel. The spiel would include elite international athletes as well as folks brand new to the sport. One of the most appealing aspects of curling is that it is so adaptable. There are various devices to assist the curler in participating even if they have physical limitations.
When Tony passed away in 2018, myself and a fellow curler, Nanci Pacheco, took over running the wheelchair program at the club. Our program works with wheelchair athletes to introduce them to the sport and improve their skill sets. At the same time, those athletes are also playing alongside able-bodied curlers in regular league play. The sport encourages athletes of all ages and abilities to join in and play on the same teams.
This year, we made the move to switch our annual Wheelchair Bonspiel (Tournament) from the summer to the fall to allow for lower costs to travel and stay on the cape, and to have increased accessible room availability. We will be hosting 7 teams from November 9th through the 12th at our Tony Colacchio Wheelchair Bonspiel. Team USA will be sending their top 8 curlers and we will have wheelchair athletes from as far away as Seattle and Atlanta as well as along east coast and across New England. We are also excited to have one of our newest and youngest curlers, Mary MacDonald, who is also a part of the Adaptive Sports New England Track Program, competing in her first bonspiel!
Long story short…volunteering can introduce you to new and wonderful people, sports and opportunities to share those things with the greater community!
If you have always wondered about wheelchair curling, this is a great chance to come down and check it out! You will also have a chance to meet the 2023 Team USA Wheelchair Athlete of the Year, Pam Wilson, as well as her fellow TEAM USA athletes, many of whom were also on the 2022 Paralympic Team.
Competition will be from 1pm to 4pm on Thursday (11/9), and 9am to 6pm on Friday & Saturday (11/10 & 11/11) with the finals taking place at 9am on Sunday (11/12). Finals include the tradition of having a bag piper lead the athletes onto the ice for the final game, which is a very cool aspect of the competition.
The Cape Cod Curling Club is located at 37 Highfield Drive, Falmouth, MA 02540. If you have any questions or concerns, you can reach out to us at: email hidden; JavaScript is required or you can call the club at: (508) 540-2414
