Brier Patch volunteers donate tips to charity

By Lethbridge Herald on March 25, 2022.

A young curling fan holds the Maple Leaf while watching the action at the Tim Hortons Brier earlier this month. Herald file photo by Ian Martens

Justin Seward – Lethbridge Herald

While the 2022 Tim Hortons Brier is officially in the books, the Patch had some work left to do before everything was said and done.

The Patch was established in 1982 and is a place where curlers and fans alike can gather during Brier week for drinks, live music and fun.

The Patch volunteer committee decided to donate the tips made — which amounted to $3,624.08 by the event’s completion — and split between the Red Cross for the Ukraine, junior curling at the Lethbridge Curling Club and the Interfaith Food Bank.

“It just came up and what would we do with it,” said Mike Henderson, The Patch volunteer.

“And three names came up and everybody agreed. It wasn’t really a vote or hands up or anything — it was basically, ‘Yeah that’s good, that’s fine.’”

Henderson said when he talked to the Lethbridge Curling Association, he was ecstatic that they were going to get some more for junior curling.

The Red Cross cheque was delivered Monday and the committee was awaiting for response from the Interfaith Food Bank.

“Well, (with) all of the volunteers being so eager to help to volunteer, they were eager to let this money go to some good cause —nobody was keeping the money — it was not about us getting tips,” said Henderson.

“We would promote it a little bit, this is going to charity. One of the guys made up the sign ‘This is a tip jar for charity.’ It had just been tips — a toonie here, a toonie there; but it was like $50s and $20s.”

Fellow volunteer Bonny Chabay says every night when she would count the tips with some of the other volunteers, she was blown away.

“You know to reach the $1,000 and then it’s like OK let’s go for $2000 — let’s see if we can make it — when we reached that I was in tears,” said Chabay.

“And then it went to $2,500, you know we were at $2,600 and something Friday night and Saturday night really showed up big time.”

“I think Lethbridge and area needed this, it came at the right time,” said Chabay.

“It was the first event since restrictions were taken off and it was evident that people needed, wanted to get out and socialize and just have a good time. It was very high energy.”