...With the community club

The annual public meeting was held this week where many issues were discussed including the New Geo-thermalequipment, the fundraising efforts of last year and many other topics. There will be a meeting in early December elect the executive officers. Click here for a complete list of your board members

...With winter coming

With the winter comes winter sports!!! If your interested in playing or watching curling click here , Hockey click here or if you want to sign up for skating click here. Times for free skating will be posted when they come avaiable.

...With the building

With the Geo-Thermal project compleate the comunity club has focused on other areas to improve, including drainage for the rink. Ice for the curling rink is on it's way and soon it will be time to start on the skating ice as well!

History of the Eriksdale Recreation Centre

In the beginning
Before there was the Eriksdale Rec. Centre, there was the Eriksdale Community Ice Gardens. That rink opened in December of 1954 and had a 180’ x 80’ skating rink, two sheets of curling ice and a large waiting room where Friday night bingo was often held; as well the rink had indoor bathrooms and a lunch counter. Mr. A.J. Smith (a local lumber merchant) donated the first $6,000 and offered to finance building this new complex. Local businessmen donated what they could and community members donated calves, grain, turkeys, vegetables or pledged a portion of there future income. The rink was built, and for the next 11 years continued to be a great source of pride, especially for a community of our size. From the building of this rink the Community Club was born.

However on the night of Aug. 6, 1965, like so many great buildings in Eriksdale’s history, the rink was destroyed by fire. After Friday night bingo the Legion lady’s swept up, then went home to bed. A few blocks away at the beverage room Tony Klimchuck drove one of the waiters home and on his way back drove by the rink to discover red light flashing from one of the windows.

Fire
From there he immediately turned on the fire alarm, but those that arrived moments later were unable to stop the destruction from taking place or save any of the interior furnishings. Fire trucks arrived from Lundar and Ashern but could do no good. People could only stand and watch as there beloved rink burnt to the ground.

By the morning all that remained of the rink was were giant burnt out beams, and a mess of lighting fixtures, kitchen appliances and chunks of broken concrete. The cause of the fire was never determined

A new beginning
It took a mere 15 days for the citizens of Eriksdale to start building again. By Aug. 21, 1965 the wreckage had been cleared away, piles of gravel had appeared and construction had started on the new “T” shaped design.

Money for the new building came from different sources that broke down like this:

* 35,000 ~ Insurance
* 9,500 ~ In club coffers at time of burning
* 8,700 ~ Legion Auxiliary
* 6,000 ~ Personal donations
* 3,800 ~ Municipal and Centennial grants
63,000 = Total

The total cost of the building came to be $110,000.

A 99 year lease in the amount of $1 on the land continued. Thor Sigurdson and Sid Rushforth were hired to build the new rink. The volunteers who arrived worked under there direction, some still remembered building the last rink only a decade ago. The ladies organized lunch every day morning and afternoon . Shingling was contracted out to meet the winter deadline and by December of 1965 parts of the building were ready for use (although a lot of work still needed to be done). People were playing and watching hockey only four months after the original building was destroyed. Jan. 15th, 1966 saw the first curling game in it’s new 3 sheets of ice. Donna Boss and Lorne Smith were married in the just finished dance hall on June 25, 1966. The upstairs banquet hall was last of the original plan to be finished in mid. July 1967, just in time for the

Eriksdale/Mulvihill Old Timers Reunion Dance on July 15(over 800 were in attendance). As Lucy Lindell wrote in the Eriksdale history book ‘Memory opens the door’: “Our rink has been called the second largest Centennial Project in rural Manitoba, and it would be a credit to any big city.”

The official opening was held September 23rd, 1967.

A new beginning
Since it’s grand opening the rink has been under almost constant renovation and updating. The first major addition was the bar hall which was completed in 1974. Dressing rooms were added to the Ice rink the in 1983. The canteen was turned from a large square counter in the middle of the rotunda to it’s current state in 1984. A curling lounge was built & the old figure skating dressing room was converted into a curling club dressing room. The arena and halls were given a new metal roof and the rotunda washrooms were upgraded and wheelchair access installed.

The Curling Rink was insulated with R40 and new roofing was added. In 2002 a concrete floor with pipes and header for geothermal was also added to the curling rink. In 2005 the ice rink was fitted with protective glass. We compleated the Geo-thermal instilation in 2009 and now have air conditioning in the summer.

With Larry Weatherburn running the curling club in 2008 many improvemnets were made to curling lounge. It was enlarged, new doors were added from the retunda, there are now couches in the Lobby and lockers in the dressing rooms. Larry also introduced a much needed bar into the weekday curling league.