YORKTON – If you are a fan of curling you might want to plan a trip to Whitewood for a firsthand look at what is being touted as the ‘world’s big curling brush’.
The big broom was recently installed “right along the Trans Canada Highway,” explained project spokesperson Chad Kelly, adding “right from the start” they wanted the broom to be a tourist draw thus it’s location.
“We’re always trying to promote our town. If people stop to take a picture maybe they’ll explore the town a little bit.”
Is it the biggest broom?
Kelly said they have contacted the Guiness Book of World Records people and been told no category exists, but a record is not official until they issue a certificate.
So, now a fundraising effort to bring a rep to Whitewood to make it official is under way , said Kelly.
Whether it’s ‘officially’ the largest or not is yet to be determined, but it sure is big – 63 feet from tip to edge according to Kelly.
Which next leaves the question of how the big brush ever got built in the first place?
“It really came about from a few of us after a curling game sitting upstairs at the curling rink,” said Kelly.
The conversation evolved that night into one about the community needing something that was ‘the biggest’, and since it was after a curling game thoughts of the sport percolated to the top.
The world’s largest curling rock already existed – a rock measuring 4.2 metres across and 2.1 metres tall and weighing 1.5 tonnes at Arborg, Man. – so that was out, but why not a big brush?
The idea stuck and Kelly said the work really began.
“First of all we needed a sponsor,” he said, adding the natural step was to contact industry companies. “Hardline, they were on board right from the start.”
The well-known curling equipment company helped with designing just what the broom would one day look like, and then the work really began.
Kelly said the process was more involved than they had anticipated with the need for detailed plans, and finding who could actually manufacture the big stick, site preparation including geo-tech work, and getting an engineer to sign off on all the details. The process was made even more protracted by the hiccup that was the COVID pandemic.
In the end the path from post curling game idea to recent installation took some eight years, said Kelly.
And of course there was the associated fundraising.
The big broom had a lot of costs associated with its creation.
Kelly said so far they have invested more than $50,000 in the big brush.
Now officially in place, Kelly said the broom has attracted a lot of attention, which of course it was hoped it would do.
“It’s gotten pretty big hype around North America,” he said adding he has had various calls from media, and good reaction on social media. “. . . I’m actually surprised how big a deal it is.
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