Bunch of the Month: Sentry Curling Center

A New Home for the Stevens Point Curling Club

Sentry Curling Center, home of the Stevens Point Curling Club

Interview with Doug Anderson

President of Stevens Point Curling Club

Question (Q): How did the Sentry Curling Center come to be?

Doug Anderson (DA): The Village of Plover offered land rent-free to the curling club several years ago and were very patient with us as we worked up a plan to build a new facility. After, an effort was made at that time to begin the process of planning and raising funds, but it didn't gain enough traction to make it a reality. We had put away some money over the years, but the effort needed a jump start. A second effort began with a new Capital Campaign Chair, Kris Henning, who was just the right person in our membership to lead the fund-raising campaign. One of our generous members challenged the membership to make pledges over a three-year period totaling $300,000 and if they did, it would be matched at 50-cents on the dollar for another $150,000. It worked. Over the course of the next year or so, pledges met and even exceeded the goal, which gave a starting point of $450,000. The club had already saved some money and with an interest-free loan program through the US Curling Association, we had now raised $800,000 in money and pledges. Once that happened, it put us in a much better position to go to the community to ask for financial assistance. We were able to approach the Sentry Insurance Foundation, which was impressed with the substantial financial commitment club members had already made. The Sentry Insurance Foundation secured naming rights for the new Sentry Curling Center with a $1.5 million contribution. To my knowledge, this is an unprecedented corporate donation to a new curling club in this country. 

Q: How did curlers in Stevens Point decide it was time for a new club?

DA: For decades we have been serving our youth, our schools, our colleges, including UWSP and Mid-State Technical College, our businesses, and our employers. We had never asked for any financial help. In 2017 and 2018, our youth programs accounted for over 45% of our overall ice usage. In the past, our debt-free facility and volunteer labor provided enough available ice time to meet the needs of our diverse group of curlers. The simple fact is we could longer do this in our old facility. Our choices were simple: stay where we were or move to a new facility which allowed for future growth. Staying where we were and doing nothing was by far the easiest path. We could simply limit our membership, maintain capacity capped youth programs and raise dues based on supply and demand. Although this would have been the easiest approach, in a way, it would have been very selfish for us as a club. The correct path was relocating. Building a larger facility that would accommodate more youth, high school, college and adult curlers would be much more difficult and will require increased volunteer time and financial commitment from our members. But we knew it was the right thing to do for our community and for our sport.

Q: A new club brings so many new opportunities. As you see it, what are those opportunities, and what do curlers seem most excited about?

DA: Continued growth of our sport in this community and serving all members  of the community. The Sentry Curling Center, designed and built by Keller, is a state-of-the-art curling facility. The renditions and plans don't match up to the "wow" factor as you enter the facility. It will take a long time before we're tired of showing it off and attracting people to our sport. Virtually anyone who walks in the building is excited by what they see. I've been curling for over 40 years and it's the nicest curling facility I've ever seen.

Q: What are some future goals of the Sentry Curling Center? What do you want people to know about the Stevens Point curling scene?

DA: The new Sentry Curling Center has four sheets of ice (four games can go on at one time), which is double the size of our old facility.  We have built it in a way that allows us to expand to six sheets of ice if we continue to grow.  This is a building which will last for many decades to come.    

We were bursting at the seams at our old club.  Even with a pandemic, we have seen our leagues grow in size and once we're able to host "learn to curl" events next season, we expect the growth to be significant. 

Above: the Sentry Curling Center features a mezzanine for spectators to look out over the ice house.

Above: the high school team practices on four sheets of ice, double the size of their previous ice house!

Q: What are some new features of the Sentry Curling Center? What makes this better, or different, than the old club?

DA: Team Schierl Companies, whose family helped build and improve the old club, sponsored our new bar, which sits next to a new lounge area with a fireplace. But the coolest feature of the new Sentry Curling Center is a mezzanine, which provides upstairs viewing to the ice below. Those above can also interact with those below--a completely unique feature to our club.

The old club was built by dedicated volunteer members over 60 years ago. Minus one roof collapse in the early '60's, the building served us well and was updated as we went. The new facility is handicap accessible, built to code and is state of the art. Thanks to the Village of Plover our location is much improved, too. This new location south of County Road B is an important part of the planned Lake Pacawa development expansion. We are the most visible curling club in the state, right off Interstate 39. 

Q: While the club was being built, COVID-19 hit. Did that cause any panic? What were the concerns of building a new club during a global pandemic?

DA: No panic, but the timing certainly wasn't favorable. Our decision to move ahead coincided with the onset of the pandemic. The Village of Plover's offer of land, Sentry Insurance Foundation's gift, plus our own members' generosity was a combination of events that would not likely happen again. We needed to move ahead. Any delays would likely be very costly.

Keller assured us it could be done and they were right--the timing ended up being ideal. The only issue came from building the refrigeration system for the curling area. The company we hired, Accent Refrigeration, had planned for a crew to come down from Canada to install. However, with travel restrictions, another crew had to be found, which caused a delay of a couple months.

Q: Likewise, Stevens Point is one of the few clubs operating right now, with many precautions. What is the effect of COVID-19 on a newly-built facility? 

DA: The US Curling Association came up with some very good guidelines about some practices we could put into place to ensure we could remain safe and socially distanced.  We've been able to follow those and still open for curling.  We were not able to hold open houses and teach new curlers this year as we would normally have done, but we've been able to do some small group activities with new curlers.  Next season we hope to do much more. 

Q: What advice do you have for clubs looking to build new facilities, like Stevens Point has done? 

DA: Find a great Capital Campaign Chair and start substantial fundraising with your own membership before going to others.

Q: Anything you’d like to promote for the new Sentry Curling Center?

DA: Our "Grand Opening" celebration has been postponed because of COVID-19 a couple times. We're hoping to do something toward the end of the season in late April or early May, so we can really celebrate with the community the new Sentry Curling Center home of the Stevens Point Curling Club in Plover.

Congratulations to the Stevens Point Curling Club for a newly-built facility. Thank you to Doug Anderson, Sandra Kawleski, and Erik Nielsen for making this feature possible.
Good Curling, Stevens Point!