CONGRATULATIONS, LYNNE NOBLE!
(Revised)
Lynne Noble came to Qualicum in 1990 and the Junior Curling Program in this entire area has never been the same. Within 2 years of her arrival from Alberta with her husband and young family, Lynne began rebuilding and rejuvenating Youth and Junior curling at the Qualicum & District Curling Club.
The average age in Qualicum Beach is 58, and a very high percentage of the population is over 60. We have the highest age demographic in Canada! With this in mind, it is not difficult to realize that building and maintaining any type of youth activity here is tenfold the challenge that it might be elsewhere.
In the early 90’s, the junior curling program at QDCC was dwindling and nearly non existent. Lynne set to work, utilizing her considerable talent and skills as a high school teacher. She went into the middle school classrooms and spoke to classes and classes of students from grades 5 – 12 about curling. She organized curling classes of all ages at the rink to be part of the school Phys.Ed. curriculum. The local high school was one block from the rink, and Lynne arranged for high school classes to walk up to the rink for their Phys., Ed. curling lessons . There were many days when Lynne has taught five classes of students in a row! She organized a Junior curling league for after school and on Sundays and enlisted the help of a small handful of volunteers. Some of Lynne’s more gifted students have participated in Junior High School competitions and have even progressed to Provincial playdowns competition.
Lynne also had our club build a large shoe locker and initiated a campaign to collect gently worn curling shoes for use by the school classes. She has spent many hours, cutting and glueing new Teflon sliders to those shoes, replacing laces, glueing soles and colour coding the sizes. As well, she has been the driving force behind fundraising to purchase grippers, brooms, shoes and other equipment for the junior locker. It would be safe to guess that QDCC has the highest calibre junior equipment locker in the province, thanks to Lynne.
As well, Lynne has put in countless hours coaching for junior and youth curling. She put together a junior boys team made up of local boys from our club who were enthusiastic curlers and anxious to develop their skills enough to compete. Lynne's positive teaching style encourages self esteem and confidence, especially important when working with kids in their teens. She honed their skills, encouraged their efforts and they thrived under her leadership. This team worked hard under Lynne’s direction, and they blossomed. Their curling skills developed to the point where they competed for and won entry into the Junior High School Provincial Curling Championship in Prince George in 2005. Lynne campaigned and raised enough money in a few short weeks to fly the whole team to Prince George. Some of these boys had never been off Vancouver Island, let alone in a jet! She boosted their confidence and was a catalyst in enabling them to experience an opportunity of a lifetime.
Lynne has also been the driving force behind bringing KidsCurl and Level I (Club Coach) courses to QDCC in the hope that member and parent volunteers will help to ensure that the programs she kept alive, stay that way. She organizes and instructs our novice and intermediate clinics each year and was instrumental and vital to the success of our new Novice League, which included instructions and fun play to new curlers. On top of that, Lynne has dedicated may, many volunteer hours to just showing up for anyone who needs a little advice and help with their curling delivery. Her real forte, however, is the teaching, training and development of curling skills in youth, in part because her young students naturally respond to her caring, empowering, positive approach.
She is currently coaching a young team of talented young girls from various parts of Vancouver Island with aspirations that could include curling at the National level, and these girls and their parents seem quite cognizant of the quality and calibre of coach they have managed to attract.
Lynne has spent countless thousands of hours working hard to keep junior curling alive in our area, despite odds that stacked highly against her. There have been years when there just have not been enough kids or volunteers available to keep it going, and then she gets a second wind and another bunch of kids learn a new skill from one the most highly skilled, genuinely enthusiastic curling instructors there could ever be.
We are so proud to call her one of our own, and so grateful for her dedication and enthusiasm. Lynne Noble has done more for Junior curling in our area than the rest of the club membership put together, and we feel she deserves to be recognized for her efforts over the past nearly two decades. She has brought curling into the lives of literally hundreds and hundreds of children, against all odds. Her accomplishments and endeavours as a true leader for junior curling are far too numerous to mention them all here.
I can’t imagine that anyone could be more deserving of the Elsie McKenzie Award and we at Qualicum and District Curling Club are absolutely thrilled that Lynne Noble has received this prestigious Provincial honour (although none of us is the least bit surprised!)
CONGRATUALTIONS, LYNNE!
Editor's note: Sincere apologies to the members and families of the boys team (coached by Lynne in 2005) for previous assertions made in this article about them, which were unverified at the time of orginial publication. It was not ever our intent to offend.
