The Wallkill Lions Club hosted their seventh annual curling tournament over the weekend. The goal for this tournament was to raise money for charity and honor for a former member of the club Michael Croce.

The club hopes to raise between $12-13,000.

“Everybody’s got to have fun,” said Lions Vice President David LaSpada. “The money we raise comes from two different things: the participants and the advertising we have here….we encourage everyone to support their local businesses and support us.”

Other donations have gone towards local schools for students in need and food pantries. The money this year is going towards four scholarships for Wallkill High School.

This event is in honor of Michael Croce, who passed away from pancreatic cancer in December. There will also be a new scholarship in his name.

“Mike was just a very active member of the club. Very fun guy,´ LaSpada said. “Everybody loved him.”

The original idea to do curling tournaments in Wallkill came from Andy Harcher eight years ago to raise money for charity. This year marks the seventh annual curling tournament of the Lions Club.

To prepare for this event itself, the Lions Club poured water in the pavilion and waited for the water to freeze solid. Because of the freezing temperature over the weekend, the water froze quickly.

“I would say the norm would be about two weeks with the cold weather to get solid ice, we did it in three days” LaSpada said.

Despite being aware of the freezing winds, it made preparations for the tournament more difficult because of the small amount of time to set up. Two weeks of set up was cut to a day and a half.

“We were out here till midnight [Friday], we came back here at 5:30 yesterday [Saturday] morning just to get ready for the event to start 8:30 yesterday,” LaSpada explained.

For this event, the curling rules are different compared to the Olympic system. The custom rules were created by Harcher where there is one bullseye a point compared to the multiple rings. Teams can also score by getting multiple stones near the bullseye.

The throwing stones are custom made with salad bowls filled with concrete, and the handle is shaped from a steel pipe.

Tournament results were not available at press time.
The Lion’s Club have done holiday and seasonal events in the Wallkill area. Their next event will involve the Saint Patrick’s Day Parade in Wallkill. The main goal of the international Lions Club is to improve the quality of life in local communities. According to the international website, there are currently 1.4 million members and 48,000 branches around the world. There’s currently 40 members in the Wallkill branch.

“We just like to encourage everybody to come out here for community support. Have fun and it’s a fun thing we can do for our community…And it’s raising money for a good cause….and that’s always our goal.”

To learn more about the organization and its events in the future, visit the Wallkill Lions Club Facebook page, contact them through (914) 213-3063, and the Lions International website.