Nicole Bellamy had not planned on relocating to Williams Lake, she had a great job she loved in St. Albert, Alta. as the curling club manager.
But then her partner Mike Neufeld got a job based in Williams Lake working for the Tsilhqot’in National Government as their construction manager.
After Neufeld came to Williams Lake, he was telling Bellamy how much he liked it, then she came out to visit in July and everything shifted.
“I fell in love with it,” she said of her trip to the lakecity.
She and her partner are mountain bikers, so she immediately found her way onto the many trails in and around Williams Lake.
Beyond the trails, she saw it had a curling club, where she could spend her winter. As well as curling twice a week, Bellamy is a Level 3 curling coach, she sells curling equipment, and instructs curling.
“And when I’m not doing all that, I’m thinking about curling,” she said.
Another thing she said the couple loved about Williams Lake is how even people experiencing difficulties, when you walk by them on the street, people still look up at you and smile or say hello.
“We hadn’t had that in Edmonton in quite awhile,” she said.
So the lakecity felt like a great fit, and she moved in September 2023.
Unfortunately, in November, while still looking for work in Williams Lake, she was on her way to a job interview when she was involved in a terrible vehicle crash. While the crash was a bad thing, it did have one positive result, and Bellamy appears to be a person who prefers to look on the brighter side.
She missed the interview which she was on her way to, but while she was recovering, the curling club heard she might be still available and reached out to offer her the role of managing the club, a role the club had been considering filling.
While Ken Hall had been fulfilling a lot of the position on a mostly volunteer basis, they were looking to hire someone for full-time.
“Talk about timing and the moon and the stars just lining up,” said Bellamy.
As to why she became so passionate about curling, Bellamy said with having Raynaud’s disease, a condition which causes some areas of the body to feel numb and cold in response to cold temperatures or stress, outdoor winter sports were out of the question.
So a winter sport where the eye-level temperature was six or seven degrees held some appeal.
Plus, there was the example of her brother, who at the time was going to represent the Yukon at the Canadian Curling championships known as the Brier.
“At the time, he smoked and he didn’t eat vegetables, and he was an athlete going to the Brier, and so I said to myself, well I should try this curling thing,” explained Bellamy with a smile.
The sport was everything and more she had hoped for, a social and challenging sport where a person can leave his or her worries behind and yell all you want.
“I’m amazed at how much mental energy you use when you’re skipping.”
She eventually led two teams to becoming Alberta champions and twice led those teams to national competition as a coach at the U18 level.
Bellamy took the new role at the Williams Lake Curling Club on Jan. 4, 2024, where she hopes to continue her goal of creating a movement.
“It’s my dream that every kid in Canada gets to throw a curling rock at least once,” she said, calling it “Canada’s game.”
“I think it should be part of the school curriculum.”
READ MORE: PHOTOS: Stick curling helps keep curlers on ice in Williams Lake
READ MORE: Williams Lake curlers clean house in 100 Mile bonspiel
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