Make way for the grannies, who will be sweeping their way into the Airdrie Curling Club this Saturday, Nov. 18.
The 8th annual Grannyspiel takes place this weekend with 16 teams competing for fun and sport starting at 10 a.m. The public is welcome to come cheer on these veteran ladies, says Lise Vanderstoel, whose team is organizing the event this year.
“Well, it's just basically a bunch of grannies that come together and have a fun day,” explained Vanderstoel. “And there are a lot of them who are longtime curlers. They have maybe curled for 30 or 40 years, they have a fun day visiting and curling.”
Don’t let the ages of these grannies fool you, said Vanderstoel– it’s actually quite a competitive event.
“We have ladies that are 80 and up, believe it or not,” she said. “And they're still very competitive. There's some really good curlers there. Most of them are from Airdrie, but we also have some teams from Calgary and Carstairs, and some of the smaller towns around here.”
Vanderstoel said the day also includes raffles with products donated from local sponsors to help raise some money for the Airdrie Curling Club.
“If we make some money off of it, it goes to the curling rink,” she confirmed. “They have some maintenance to do and a new ice plant … We'll be happy if we can help out with that a little bit too.”
For those interested in coming out to support the Grannypiel, the first match is at 10 a.m. and the second is at 2 p.m. with all 16 teams on the ice at once.
