That’s a question Mike Wojda and his wife Deb asked as they looked around the state and saw established curling clubs in Midland, Lansing, Traverse City, and even Lewiston, which has had a club since 1960.

That question got the wheels turning and eventually led to the formation of the Thunder Bay Curling Club and a mission to help grow the sport in Northeast Michigan.

Every four years, curling occupies a space in the public eye during the Winter Olympics and it’s estimated by the United States Curling Association that there are more than 23,000 curlers in clubs nationwide.

Though the Thunder Bay Curling Club has just 22 members currently, members say interest is growing and anyone interested in the Olympic sport can experience it right in their own backyard.

News Photo by James Andersen A sweeper sweeps in front of a curling stone. In order to get a stone to slow down, sweepers sweep the ice in front of the stone to reduce friction and to make the stone travel further.

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“Anybody can do it. I’ve seen 80-year-old people do it. I’ve seen a person in a wheelchair curl,” Mike Wojda, the club’s founder and president, said.

Curling involves two teams taking turns sliding polished stones — which weigh more than 40 pounds — on an ice sheet toward a target area of four circular segments called the house.

Teams try to accumulate points by getting their stones closest to the center of the house — called the button. To make the stone travel further, players sweep the ice in front of the stone, reducing the friction in front of it.

Olympians may make curling look easy on TV, but Thunder Bay Curling Club members will tell you the sport is a lot more than sliding stones and sweeping brooms. There’s a deep sense of camaraderie among club members and a great deal of strategy and precision needed to be successful.

News Photo by James Andersen Mike Wojda preps the ice with a pebbler before a recent curling match. The backpack-like device is used to texture smooth ice with hot water droplets, which creates a coat of pebbles to raise curling stones off the ice surface. The pebbles are then either cut or smashed to create a surface for stones to sit on.

“I like good shots. It’s hard to make good shots, so when you get a chance to make one like you see on TV and you actually can make one … it’s pretty satisfying because you made a good shot or somebody on your team made a good shot,” Mike Wojda said.

The push to bring a curling club to Alpena has been a team effort, Wojda said, and the club incorporated in 2019.

Northern Lights Arena applied for a grant from the Alpena Youth and Rec Committee to cover ice time. Members of the Lewiston Curling Club helped put in curling markings on the ice sheet. Through a Great Lakes Curling Association lending program, the club got curling stones. Another grant from the Youth and Rec committee has helped the club begin to purchase its own stones as well as other equipment.

Every Sunday afternoon, the low rumble of rolling stones and the swish of brooms sweeping the ice can be heard on the Puddle — the smaller of two ice sheets at Northern Lights Arena — for weekly competition.

The club held a Learn to Curl event in October 2019, drawing some interest from residents who wanted to try out the sports themselves.

News Photo by James Andersen A group of curling stones is seen before a curling match in Alpena. The stones each weigh more than 40 pounds and are thrown from a starting block known as a hack.

Alpena resident Jess Breckenridge — a member of team Curl Jam — attended one of those events and got hooked on the sport. She said she appreciates the game and its strategy, which she described as a mix of chess and darts.

“I always wanted to curl … I saw there was a curling club and a Learn to Curl (event), so I came out and just kind of got hooked,” Breckenridge said. “It’s a bit harder than it looks, but it’s still accessible to everyone. That’s what I like about it. I like the spirit of the game, too, it’s very friendly.”

This season, the club has enough players to field six teams and hopes to add more in the future.

“We’re pleased that it’s growing, but we’d like to see it grow more,” Mike Wojda said. “The vast majority of people I talk to and ask, ‘Why haven’t you been to our curling sessions?’ They say, ‘I didn’t know there was a curling club.'”

“It really is open to everyone who wants to try it,” Wojda said. “We’re hopeful with the Olympics, people will say, ‘I’ve always wanted to try that.’ Well, now they can.”

News Photo by James Andersen Deb Wojda directs a teammate on where to curl a stone during a recent curling match at Northern Lights Arena.

Anyone interested in learning more about the club can find it on Facebook by searching Thunder Bay Curling Club.

This story and the accompanying photos have been updated to reflect that the purpose of sweeping is to make a stone go further. This information was incorrect in an earlier version of the story.

News Photo by James Andersen Houses — circular areas where points are scored are shown at Northern Lights Arena. Once a stone is thrown from the hack, teams try to accumulate points by getting their stones closest to the center ring of the house — called the button.