Help Windy City Curling Recover From Water Damage

With heavy hearts, we here at Windy City Curling are sad to share a fire broke out at a store in the strip mall above our club - forcing us to close our doors for the time being. While our awesome Villa Park Fire Department saved the building, a lot of smoke and water came down from above, right into our space.

At first look, things are bad. Flooding caused extensive damage to just about everywhere, including our Ice House. The three curling sheets we all call our "Houses Away from Home" were damaged. On top of that, the power company had to turn off the electricity for safety, including our chiller. The ice alone is going to take multiple weeks to rebuild.

In the Warm Room, our couches and furniture were soaked, and it's not clear if they can be saved. The water also made it all the way into the locker rooms where players keep their equipment, and some of it was ruined.

Our main office saw a brunt of the smoke and water damage, since it's located more directly underneath where the fire happened. This is where we run three laptops to stream our curling games live online to the world. All soaked.

As our Board and Facility leaders make a plan to recover and reopen, we've had to cancel all of our leagues and events until further notice. Our losses were great, but thankfully, no one was hurt in the fire.

Windy City Curling is down - but we are not out! We're looking forward to rebuilding our space better than before, and we're asking for your help to do it!

The cause of the fire in the space above us is still a mystery, so we're trying to figure out who's insurance will pay - and what it'll cover. Until then, we'll be hard at work getting our club back on its feet.

Depending on what can be salvaged, it seems we're going to need new streaming equipment, some new furniture, and new lockers. There's a chance some construction work will be needed, too, but we're waiting for those inspections to take place before we can get solid scope of the damage.

A firm timeline to our grand re-opening isn't known, but it seems Windy City Curling will be out of commission for at least a number of weeks. Until then, any help you can offer to help out our awesome community is deeply appreciated it.