‘It’s a community effort’: Carleton Heights Curling Club vows to rebuild after heartbreaking fire

Members of the Carleton Heights Curling Club are used to working as a team. In fact, they were just finishing up their championships when a fire broke out in the building in the early morning hours of April 24.

Now, Ryan Wright, the past president of the club, says it will take all of them and the support of the community to have the facility up and running for the fall season.

Wright vividly remembers the events of April 23 and 24. He was playing for his own team, vying to win the night, along with many other club members. When the festivities finally came to a close, Wright said he got home around 1:30 a.m. About 45 minutes later, he was back in the car on his way back to the club; the fire alarm went off.

“I just kept thinking, ‘I hope it’s a false alarm,'” Wright told CityNews.

He would soon find out the alarm was not false. He parsed through police cars and fire trucks to see smoke billowing from the building.

“My heart just sank,” he said.

Wight said he sat on the sidewalk for hours, watching as 60 to 70 firefighters strove to get the blaze under control.

“There there’s been so much work that we’ve done in the club over the past few years to to modernize and bring it up to date and make sure that we are one of the premier places in Ottawa to curl and create a friendly and welcoming community,” he told CityNews. “And just to see literally all that we’re copping smoke over the last few years was devastating.”

The devastation continued into the next day when Wright was tasked with reaching out to the club’s nearly 450 members to deliver the news.

But without hesitation, the curling club’s board and many of its members sprang into action. Wright said he is overwhelmed by the amount of support and the swift action of his fellow curlers.

Wright said staff have “bent over backwards” to help with assessments, organize members, and create a timeline and plan of action. He himself is part of the club’s fundraising campaign.

Wright said the club is lucky that it has insurance to cover the costs to fix structural damage, but the fundraiser will help to replace their bar and banquet facilities.

“Everything from a table and chairs and down to our Christmas decorations and our Thanksgiving decorations. Anything you could think of that you’d use to either supply your home goods, your home or a restaurant or an ice rink, essentially we had all of it and it’s all gone,” he said.

The club started a GoFundMe page with the goal of raising $100,000. Just seven days after the fundraiser’s launch, the club has already received over $20,000 in donations.

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But Wright said they are not stopping there. He said the club is looking to reach out to partners, vendors and other sports teams for support in putting together community events like an auction.

“I’d love to be able to reach out to the Ottawa Senators and say, ‘Hey, we both play on ice, but obviously we can’t continue right now,'” he said.

Wright told CityNews the support the club has received from the community is “heartwarming.”

“We’ve even had curling clubs in Europe reach out to us and say, ‘Is there anything that we can do?'” he said.

The support has shown him how important the club is and how much the Ottawa sports community will come together for a common cause.

But it’s also a testament to the work that the curling club provides. Wright said the organization has spent the past 69 years on the other side of the charitable support.

Notable causes the club has supported through raising donations are the Heart and Stroke Foundation, prostate cancer awareness and breast cancer. The club has also hosted trials for the Special Olympics.

Wright said he is hoping the club can reopen for the 2025-2026 season but that may not look the same as previous years.

“I do think we’re going to open in the fall. I just can’t tell you if it’s going to be September 1st or October 20,” he said.

But that opening will take prioritization. Wright said the club wants to get the ice up and running to allow people to curl while they continue to work on the bar and banquet facilities.

Overall, Wright said the team has stepped up and is on the front lines of getting the facilities up and running.

“I is a community effort. It is a team effort. It is a board effort,” he said.