U.S. Steel Pan Continental Curling Championships Opening Ceremony © World Curling / Logan Hannigan-Downs

Author

Mike Haggerty

22 October 2025

Community spirit shines at US Steel Pan Continental Curling Championships

Full confirmation that this season’s US Steel Pan Continental Curling Championships, staged in Virgina and Eveleth, Minnesota, is a true community effort came during Opening Ceremony at Virginia’s Iron Trail Motors Event Center.

Setting the tone at that opening ceremony, Larry Cuffee, mayor of Virginia, shared his pride: “It’s a big community effort and we’re so honoured to have it right here in this new facility. This is a huge curling community and it’s just amazing to have all these world visitors here.”

The sense of unity is evident in number as while Virgina itself has a population of just over 8,000, the local organising committee has managed to recruit over 700 local volunteers to help run the event.

Teams at the Opening Ceremony © World Curling / Caroline Sherman

Another major boost at this Championships came with one of the region’s major companies — U.S. Steel — stepping in as the title sponsor. Their involvement, as explained by Chrissy Barkovitch, Senior Environment Manager, was driven by a commitment to the community.

She said, “We do a lot of community support. We like to sponsor community events and when USA Curling approached us in the summer, we recognised this was going to be a new experience for us.

“This is something that wouldn’t normally happen, so it’s really exciting to play a part in bringing people to the area.”

She added, “It was really exciting to see how many people came out for the opening ceremony. When I got here tonight, the parking lot was already full!”

Chrissy Barkovitch, U.S. Steel Senior Environment Manager speaks at Opening Ceremony © World Curling / Stephen Fisher

Local leadership and vision

Local curling figure Phill Drobnick, Director of Coaching for USA Curling, has been central to the local organising effort.

He highlighted the community’s enthusiasm: “The community is excited about people coming in and hosting all these countries.”

He explained further, “We built this arena three years ago with the thought of having not just hockey, but other events too. It’s community-funded, so a lot of local people and organisations put money into it. To be able to bring an event like this, bringing international people to our community, with the economic impact this is going to have, is going to be a huge boost.”

Phill also shone a light on why community involvement is so strong in this region.

“The Iron Range is characterised by hard-working people who care about each other. This is a tight-knit group: everybody knows everybody, and everybody wants to help everybody, so no matter if it’s a hockey tournament, or an arts event or curling, everybody comes together.”

Beyond US Steel, many other local business and organisations have lent their support, including New Range Mining, the Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board and the Curl Mesabi Foundation, alongside various local and regional governmental authorities. All share one common goal: strengthening the community.

Teams cheer on the opening stone © World Curling / Stephen Fisher

Eyes on the future

While the focus is on delivering a world-class event now, they are looking to the future too.

Phill Drobnick explained, “We‘ve now got seven days to prove that we can put on a world-class event. We want to be able to showcase what we can do here.”

He added, “We are so excited about this, we’d love to do some more. The opportunities are endless, whether we’re looking at another World Curling event, or potentially a Slam. “

The good news is that US Steel seems to share that ambition for the future. Chrissy Barkovitch said, “We think this is a partnership and that this is just a start. A lot of the local curling clubs are run by our employees — our employees are really a part of this, so we want to remain in partnership.”

Mayor Cuffee summed it up perfectly: “It’s just amazing to have all these world visitors here. To bring curling here to this small community — not just from an economic perspective, but from an international perspective — makes you forget about politics and the perils of life. It makes you think about one thing: we’re here to curl.”

“It’s a very international game and it helps us to bond with each other and build new friendships. It’s difficult for me to express in words how fortunate we feel that all these teams have come to us.”