Ken Bonokoski has been a big part of curling in Bienfait for decades, and he recently earned a well-deserved provincial recognition.
Bonokoski was presented with the Walter Ortt Volunteer Award by CurlSask on Oct. 21. Pauline Ziehl Grimsrud, who is the manager of the Estevan Curling Club and a CurlSask representative, nominated him for the award and quietly assembled the information for his nomination without Bonokoski’s knowledge.
“I didn’t know until Wednesday evening (Oct. 21), when we had our curling club meeting (In Bienfait), and Pauline showed up with the award,” Bonokoski told the Mercury.
Bonokoski has been a volunteer at the curling club since the 1980s; he and his wife Suzanne have taken an active role in looking after the facility.
“In the early 1980s I started curling – actually, I was curling a number of years before that – but in the early ‘80s, I started getting involved,” recalled Bonokoski. “In 1984, I took on being the treasurer, and then in about the 1987-88 season, our numbers were down to almost nothing, and we were having problems with our ice.”
A group came together and decided they needed to redo the ice surface, so they dug the whole ice surface up and installed a cement floor to replace the previous gravel floor.
“In the fall of 1988, I took on the presidency of the club, and I’ve been there ever since,” said Bonokoski.
An addition was built to the back of the rink for water storage to make ice, and they rebuilt the fire escape on the east side of the rink.
“You’re always operating on a pretty small budget,” he said.
Bonokoski said he has taken such an active role to keep the club running because he didn’t want to see it fail, and he has enjoyed being involved.
“The curling community as a whole is actually a great community to work with,” said Bonokoski. “My wife and I have made a lot of friends through the curling rink, and having other people involved with us.”
Numbers at the Bienfait Curling Club are down a little, but they’re holding their own, like a lot of curling clubs these days. They’re sitting at about 12 or 13 teams, or about 50 members, for the three-sheet ice surface.
Each week a recreational league takes to the ice in Bienfait. It’s an open league, so teams can be comprised of men, women or mixed.
“We haven’t really gotten into a real competitive side of it,” said Bonokoski.
He would like to see somebody step in and take over the presidency and some of the other involvements that Bonokoski and his wife have, but trying to find volunteers to step forward can be tough.
They’ll remain involved in the meantime, and he’s glad that they have taken such an active role in keeping curling viable in the town. And he said there have been a lot of people who have been involved with the club over the years who he shares the award with.
The Bienfait Curling Club would normally open on the first Monday of November, but this year they’re holding off until early January.
