Glenmore 2004

2004 Glenmore Recap Edition

Kurling for Kids 2004 was another huge success. The event was able to raise over $31,000. The event was run out of the TMR Curling Club and Glenmore Curling Club. This year's efforts have brought our overall total to over $116,000 since we first started raising money in 1999.

The event was expanded to two clubs (TMR curling club and Glenmore curling club) last year. In its second year at Glenmore, Glenmore members and their guests were able to raise $7,440. In the past two years, the Glenmore community as helped raised over $13,000.

A special thanks to Dan Lafleur, Quebec's skip at the 2004 Brier, for accepting to play in our bonspiel. Dan autographed the broom Barbara Tomasini (my wife) won for her fund raising efforts. Dan didn't mind autographing it twice as Barbara wanted to have the year put next to his name as well.

The event took on an emotional note as Paul Henzell talked about his son, John's, battle with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. Here is what Paul said:

"On August 20, 2002, our son, John Henzell, was diagnosed as having Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL). While ALL is a common form of Leukemia in children, it is very rare in children under the age of 1 year old. John was nine months old when he was diagnosed and was given a 20 to 30% chance of being cured. Baby John's (as he was known at the Children's Hospital) treatment protocol required 48 weeks of intense chemotherapy. We essentially lived in The Montreal Children's Hospital for the 1st 6 months of his treatment protocol, with frequent day treatments and short admissions for the remainder of his protocol.

We are happy to say that John finished his treatment protocol on Sept 3, 2003 and is in complete remission. We now visit the hematology day treatment center at The Montreal Children's Hospital once per month for a complete check up and blood test.

We have seen first hand, how incredible the people are at The Montreal Children's Hospital, but they need our help. They are understaffed, and they need new equipment to help them give even better care to our children. That is why we are thankful for events like "Kurling for Kids", and we look forward to its continued success and growth."

John was at the club and enjoyed the day. He was running around the lounge for a good part of the day.


John and Piglet smile for the camera at Walt Disney World. The passes were provided by The Starlight Children's Wish Foundation.

Their story made the time and effort spent organizing the event all worth it for this organizer (as it probably did for the others that helped out).

The hard luck winner (and with his luck there isn't an award for it) has to go to Mike Cormier. He came out to curl from St-Lambert. He had the misfortune of locking his locker key inside his locker, splitting his pants and losing his screws (the ones on his broom that is) but he made a triple takeout, brought stuffed animals for the kids and was always smiling!! Way to go Mike… Hope we can expand into St-Lambert next year.

This year's winners at Glenmore were the Nasty Boys (Skip Karl Gustafson, Rahul Majumdar, Phil Stock and Tom Stock). Second place winners were Billy's Bang Bangs (Skip Stanley Fong, Billy Sheppard, Dawn Sheppard and Angie Kyle). The best team with one loss went to Fort Knox (Skip Tracey Knox, Dan Lafleur, Phil Knox, Paul Henzell and Cindy McHugh).

To all the people that helped make this year's event a huge success, a big heartfelt thank you from the Kurling for Kids organization, the hospitals (Ste-Justine's and Montreal's Children's), Paul and Cindy Henzell, and although he doesn't know it yet… John Henzell too.

On behalf of Stanley Fong (my other half… with regards to Kurling for Kids that is) and the Kurling for Kids organizers, I'd like to thank the following people for their efforts and contributions:

• Paul Devito - donating two prizes (one brunch, a room and brunch package) to Hotel Auberge Universel


• Steve Devito - Days Inn Montreal Metro center room and brunch package


• Dean Sansom & Tracey Weatherhead - various door prizes


• Tricia Chaif and Lucie Guillemette - various prizes donated by Air Canada


• Andre Ferland Sports - two Performance brooms


• Oslon Curling Canada - two broom bags


• Mike Cormier (from St Lambert Curling Club) - for donating all the stuffed animals we had for the kids and for being a great sport


• Casino de Montreal for donating dinner for two and tickets to a show


• Dan Lafleur for not only making an appearance but playing and staying right to the end, thanks!!


• Paul, Cindy and John Henzell - for sharing their story with us


• All the participants for their fund raising efforts and making sure the event was a success


• Kendra Griffths - for checking through the sponsor sheets to make sure they were completed correctly, can you tell that she's a teacher?


• Linda and Hector Kyle - for making sure everything went well with the dinner and helping with cleaning up


• Billy and Dawn Sheppard - for helping the Kyles in the kitchen


• Kevin Raftery - for preparing the hot dogs after game 1 for both draws, the chips after game 2, recording the scores of the games… probably better to say… his time during the games, during dinner and afterwards… and he's not even a member!


• Angie Kyle and Barbara Tomasini - you ladies are awesome… (helping with registration, making the scoreboard, helping with dinner, cleaning up, even sorting the money)… they deserve as much of the credit as anyone else, without them we'd not have been able to do our share


• Robert Sears, Carl Mainguy, Lorne Greenberg and the rest of the TMR team for their efforts at the TMR curling club


• Robert Sears for founding and continuing this worthy cause… "You the goods!!"


• If anyone was missed, thank you!! As you all know it is difficult to run an event and remember and see the efforts of everyone that helped make it so successful. So please don't feel left out, we wouldn't have been able to do it without your help!!

If you didn't get a chance to donate before the event, you can make donations online at www.kurlingforkids.com (click on Donate Online - PayPal on the left side). The donations will be forward by our President Robert Sears to the Ste-Justine's and Montreal Children's Hospitals.

Stanley and I look forward to a bigger and better event in 2005!!

Rj Awasthi
Kurling for Kids
www.kurlingforkids.com