Curling folks crazy ’bout sharp dressed fans

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This article was published 08/03/2019 (2119 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The back of Brenda Chicoine’s truck was filled with a variety of different costumes as she chugged across the Manitoba border earlier this month.

Her destination? The Tim Hortons Brier. Chicoine and her sister, Dorothy Mosher, have been going to Briers across the country for the past 13 years. Each year, they bring a multitude of different outfits to wear throughout the event.

One of them always tries to drive, Chicoine said, so they can transport the many outfits they wear during the games.

This year, it was her turn.

“We can’t afford to take 15 bags (on a plane anyway),” she said. “They probably wouldn’t let us.”

They both love the sport of curling, and meeting at the event every year gives the sisters a chance to catch up.

“That’s the one time we get together,” said Mosher, who lives in Alberta. “We have 10 days of socializing, having fun; it’s lots of laughs.”

Recently, Chicoine’s daughter Carolyn Garnier has joined them. They both live in Saskatchewan.

The trio were a hit at the game on Thursday afternoon at the Keystone Centre.

This time, they were dressed up as angels. They stopped to pose for a photo as they walked to the game. Chicoine holds a sign that says “At the Brier we’re in heaven.”

One fan yells “God is on your side” to the women dressed all in white with halos perched on their heads. They’re a big hit.

Interacting with other fans is one of the reasons why they do it, Chicoine said.

“We just find it’s far more social when we wear full outfits,” she said. “When we wear one every day, people start to look forward to what we’re doing.”

Mosher is their designated prop maker. They dressed up as lumberjacks earlier this week, and she designed their little hatchets made out of styrofoam.

The first day of the Brier, they always dress up in the colours of the host province, so they were all in yellow, but after that it’s up in the air.

So far, they’ve also been nuns and they dressed up like wild cards to cheer on the wild card team.

They got a lot of positive feedback from those outfits, she said.

“When they saw us the team came to us and said, ‘Awesome, we have fans,’” she said. “So, we’ve been back and forth and they actually look for us when they go on the ice.”

Often, they’ll brainstorm costume ideas throughout the year. There’s also the last-minute ideas that they get when they’re already at the Brier, and they have to put the costume together by the next day.

Either way, they make sure they’re all dressed up come game time.

Their passion for curling has taken them all across the country.

They’ve been as far west as Kamloops, B.C., and as far east as St. John’s, N.L. They’ve also made stops in between, including Halifax, N.S., and Regina, Sask.

“Our whole life we’ve been fans,” she said. “We like to watch great curling, and there’s no better social place to be then the Brier.”

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