Filipina gets top job at curling club without knowing the game
Although she does not know the game of curling, Edelaine Penaflor got the top job at a curling club. CONTRIBUTED
FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. — A Filipina manager landed the top job in an iconic curling club in Fort St. John, British Columbia, Canada despite not knowing what this game on ice is about.
Edelaine Penaflor, 28, is now making headlines for becoming the executive director of the Fort St. John Curling Club where the winter sport is so popular.
“I just know it’s sweeping and throwing some rocks,” she told Carolina de Ryk, the host of CBC’s Daybreak North. “I still don’t know how you win.”
Curling is a team sport, played on ice, where two teams take it in turns to slide stones made of granite towards a target – known as a House. It is an Olympic and Paralympic winter sport with medal disciplines for Women’s, Men’s, Mixed Doubles and mixed Wheelchair teams, according to world curling.org.
It’s one of the events in the Winter Olympics and Canada currently holds the most number of Olympic gold medals in the sport. It has six gold medals and its team is working hard to win another one this year.
As an immigrant, Penaflor applied for jobs through Linkedin, hoping to find something she has experience in. But instead of finding a job, the job, as they say, found her.
Penaflor moved to Canada in July with her partner who is studying business administration at Northern Lights College. She started working at the curling club in August or just shortly after arriving in St. John.
According to former club president Kenton Evenson, the Fort St. John Curling Club has to run year-round, so they needed an executive director who can keep the facility busy when there are no curling events in the summertime, especially that club memberships went down during the pandemic, cbc.ca reports.
“It’s a huge, empty space of potential, so having somebody that can see that space and sell that space and so … all these organizations can have access to it, that’s something super important,” said Evenson, who was also part of the board of directors that hired Penaflor.
The curling center, Penaflor said, has a bar, a soccer pitch and a banquet space available for events.
“It’s not just like curling any more — we’re actually serving the entire community,” she added.
The Fort St. John Curling Club was founded in 1946, and it has been at the “heart of the North Peace region” since that time.
Evenson told cbc.ca that he’s glad someone as experienced as Penaflor took the role, despite her lack of experience with the sport.
“Being able to curl is great — you want people that understand the sport and how passionate people are about the sport, especially in Canada,” he also said. “But … the more important thing is how to manage people, how to make sure buildings [are] running.”
He was sure Penaflor had the capability having worked as events manager for a five-star hotel in the Philippines. Penaflor has worked for Sofitel Philippine Plaza Manila and the Conrad ManilaPH.
Sofitel Philippine Plaza Manila is an iconic 5-star luxury resort which attracts international and local travelers alike with its signature Filipino brand of hospitality and the French joie de vivre reflected in its service rituals, its website reads.
