Team Kevin Martin

What do you get when you cross an Olympic gold medallist curler with Juno winning artists, former NFL hall of famers and a handful of Hollywood A-listers?

North York General Hospital found the answer when it launched its inaugural Celebrity Human Race presented by Shops at Don Mills. The two-day fundraising event raised more than $700,000 for the hospital and even boasted a secret location, one of which was Bayville Curling Club where our very own Kevin Martin taught celebrities and other participants to curl.

Sound too good to be true? Don’t believe us? Check out the photos for yourself and you may recognize  a few famous faces!

Kevin, John, Marc and Ben represented themselves and their sponsor, Meridian Manufacturing Group, at Buymart 2010. Not only did they greet all guests who visited the booth but they shared stories about their experiences, the Olympics and they hung the Olympic gold medal around guests necks while posing for pictures. Everyone congratulated the team and was happy they were there. Here are some pictures from the event:

The West Coast Curling Classic was the first event of the year for our team and it couldnt have went any better ! It was the first time we were back in the city that was buzzing for 2 weeks while we were representing our country in Feb in the Olympics. The city was alot less crazy but never the less, it brought back some great memories as I caught myself day dreaming back to afew months back and how unbeliveable this past year has been for us..

Our first three games in the A were a little lopsided as we played really well, and then we ran into a always tough Jeff Stoughton team who we beat 7-6 in the A Final to qualify for Mondays playoff round. On the other side of the A our good friends from Edmonton were the winners, so what else are you going to do on a Sunday in beautiful weather …… GOLF !

We lined up a great Ryder cup format so that Team Martin vs Team Koe would have something to play for as dinner was on the line ! The teams were Martin/Morris vs Koe/Rycroft and the 2nd match was Hebert/Kennedy vs Macdonald/Theissen. We had a great day on the course with alot of laughs, good shots, and some not so good shots ! The Martin/Morris team was a wash with Koe/Rycroft so the match was decided by Hebert/Kennedy just beating Blake/Nolan by a 1/2 point ! ( Because Im writing this blog, I do have to say I had the shot of the day when I drained a 175 yard 5 iron for eagle on the 9th hole, BOOM BABY !! )

Needless to say, you dont always get days off on the road, and anywhere but Vancouver we wouldnt have been golfing, so we had a great day and now off to our free Dinner at Boston Pizza to watch the new young fun Oilers ! Oil got out played badly, but the somehow snuck out a win and started the year 2-0…. Playoffs ? We might be jumping the gun, but were all pumped to have a little spark with this seasons versions of the Oilers…

Playoff Monday for us went well for us, as we played a up and coming team of Brock Virtue and he had us in some major trouble but couldnt make his last shot of the game, so as I like to say “we dodged a bullet”, and moved on to the Semi-finals. Where we played Jimmy Cotter and they gave us all we could handle, we had to steal the last end to win, and Jimmy didnt have much of a shot on his last one, so we may or may not have “dodged another bullet” on our way to the finals !

Then we found our game and we needed to as we played The World Champs Kevin Koe …. Game we tight the whole way with The Ol’ Grizzly Bear drawing the fourfoot for the win and the 20,000 dollars !

Great to be back in Vancouver, great hosts, and they always put on a awesome event and we look forward to coming back next year to defend our title.

Till Next Time,
Benny