Anastasia Bucsis was born and raised in Calgary, Alberta and started speed skating at the age of 4. Within her 24 year speed skating career she represented Canada at 2 Olympic Games, 6 World Championships and 46 World Cup starts. She was the only athlete from North America to come out publicly in opposition to Russia’s anti LGBTQ+ laws before the Sochi 2014 Olympics. She now lives in Toronto and works for CBC Sports where she co-hosts CBC Sports Presents (CBC’s main sport property with Scott Russell and Andi Petrillo). She just came back from Paris 2024, where she hosted the morning show for CBC.

When she was 17, Jill Officer won her first provincial curling championship.  Just a year later, she won her first National title.  Since then, she hasn’t looked back winning seven more provincial titles, six national titles and four world championship medals including gold in 2008 and 2018.

After trying two times previous to qualify for the Olympic Games, Jill and her team finally won the Olympic Curling Trials in front of their hometown of Winnipeg in 2013.  The team won the right to represent Canada at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games.  Once in Sochi, Jill and her team made history by being the first team to go undefeated in Women’s Curling and ultimately won the Gold Medal.

Jill is now retired from elite play but continues to be involved in the game in various capacities. She recently finished a six-year term on the World Curling Athlete Commission where she was the chairperson for the last two years. She is also the High-Performance Director for CurlManitoba and is currently in her final year of her Honours Kinesiology degree at the University of Winnipeg.

Mike Shoreman’s life exemplifies persistence, resilience, and incredible transformation. Renowned for his authenticity and influential mindset, Mike addresses how to confront uncertainty and fear with positivity and success. As a gifted storyteller, he blends inspiration, likability, and candor, offering practical solutions to challenging situations based on his remarkable journey. A nationally recognized coach with Paddle Canada, Mike’s life changed dramatically when he was diagnosed with Ramsay Hunt Syndrome in 2018. This condition led to severe physical impairments, including loss of mobility, hearing, and vision, chronic vertigo, and facial nerve collapse, culminating in a mental health crisis.

After a grueling physical rehabilitation and mental health recovery, Mike found a new purpose. Defying medical expectations, he returned to paddle boarding, ultimately making history in 2022 as the first person to paddle board across all five Great Lakes.

His journey supported national mental health organizations and raised significant awareness across Canada and globally. Mike’s Great Lakes Crusade and his own experiences underscore that resilience can be built through facing everyday challenges.

He works with organizations, corporate groups, and academic institutions to inspire audiences to push beyond their limits. Mike shares valuable lessons on maintaining positivity and focus amidst adversity, providing real-world examples that empower individuals and teams to achieve practical solutions for optimal outcomes.

Mike’s work has been recognized by the Ontario Legislative Assembly, the House of Commons and the Prime Minister. He has been nominated twice for the Ontario Premier’s Award and received the Marg Starzynski Mental Health Leadership Award from the Mood Disorder Society of Canada in 2022. In 2024, his paddleboard from the Great Lakes crossings was inducted into The Canadian Canoe Museum. The Council of the Great Lakes Region honoured Mike with The Changemaker of the Year Award in 2024.

Heather Mair is a Professor and Chair of the Department of Recreation and Leisure Studies at the University of Waterloo. Her research concentrates on the impact of sport, tourism, and recreation on individual well-being and community development. For nearly 20 years, Heather has collaborated with stakeholders in curling to explore the sport’s benefits for participants and communities. Additionally, she has been actively involved in promoting curling’s evolution to ensure it is inclusive, welcoming, and safe for everyone.

Guided by a strong sense of faith, Sabena Butt Islam is a dedicated advocate and champion of causes close to her heart. Her roles as a mother, wife, and daughter have deeply influenced her commitment to nurturing and supporting others throughout her life. A breast cancer survivor, Sabena is a passionate proponent for early detection,
screening, and patient advocacy. This experience, along with other pivotal events in her life, has ignited her advocacy journey, where she fervently promotes social justice. Never afraid to speak her mind or speak truth to power, Sabena is a community leader in the awareness and prevention of anti-Muslim hate.  She is a strong believer that in order to combat racism and oppression, justice must be at the forefront of our minds when advancing diversity, equity and inclusion.  Sabena strongly believes in using her voice and privileges to support oppressed groups both locally and globally, including the Palestinian people, advocating for those whose voices are often silenced. Sabena is an active community builder in Kingston, serving as a key member of the city’s anti-racism working group. Her efforts are instrumental in fostering a more inclusive and respectful community environment. Beyond her advocacy work, Sabena is deeply involved in the sport of curling. As a long-time curler, coach, and youth curling leader, she combines her passion for curling with her commitment to positive social change through initiatives such as UnitedWeCurl and the Canadian Women & Sport Same Game Challenge. Professionally, Sabena is a licensed professional engineer and proficient small business manager. She also serves as the Director of Curling for the Winter Sports Federation Pakistan, where she promotes the growth of curling in her ancestral homeland. She emphasizes the sport’s benefits in fostering social connections, health, leadership skills, and networking opportunities.

Terry Piche has been in active in the field of recreation since 1979. Starting as a frontline practitioner with no training, he has subsequently obtained diplomas, through distance learning, in both arena management and leisure services, while working his way through the ranks of supervisor, manager, and director. This passion for life-long learning is what he strives to instill in the next generation of recreation facility professionals. Today, his work focuses on monitoring legislative change in many of the complex regulations, codes and acts that impact recreation. Further, he collaborates with key governing authorities so that they are better informed of ORFA’s leadership role in the recreation sector and how the association is investing its resources to assist their respective efforts in compliance. In addition, he captures industry experiences and best practices, and develops actionable, easy-to-implement and practical solutions that comprise components of ORFA training courses, which result in professional accreditation. Terry has been recognized with numerous industry awards.

Greg Cantin- I started my insurance career in 2003 as an Associate Agent with Co-operators in North Bay, Ontario, my hometown.  In 2012 we relocated to Sudbury, Ontario so that I could take over my own Co-operators Agency, where I remain today.  Generally, I specialize in commercial insurance, life insurance and investments.  I possess a general insurance license (OTL), life insurance license (LLQP) and a mutual funds license.  As a multi-product insurer, we offer a very broad product sweet that includes personal lines insurance, travel, group, life and investments.

In my teens, I got a job as an ‘ice boy’ at the North Bay Granite Club.  My father was a competitive curler for many years, so I became very keen on the game.  From ages 16-18 we represented Northern Ontario at three Canadian Junior Championships.  After graduating to Men’s, I competed in many provincial championships both in Ontario and Northern Ontario, losing the final in 2003 with Scott Patterson.  We were successful on the World Curling Tour, winning a couple of events.

Family then became a priority and I stepped away from the competitive game, but I remain committed to helping Curling Clubs remain viable with our Community Guard Insurance program.  I am also a past president of the North Bay Granite Club.I am happily married to my wife Jennifer and have two sons, Jordan (19) and Carter (16).

Collin Johnson – I started working at Co-operators in 2011 as a receptionist and worked my way up to owning that same agency. I am a Certified Financial Planner® Professional specializing in life insurance and investments while also overseeing the commercial insurance operations of my agency. Trevor Osbourne is my right-hand man in commercial insurance who takes deeper dives into client’s policy wordings. I hold a general insurance license, life insurance life, and mutual funds license to be able to assist clients will all parts of their finances while also currently working towards the Chartered Life Underwriter (CLU) designation to further assist in estate planning.

More importantly, this upcoming season will be my 10th season in curling. I am a member of the Navan Curling Club (shoutout to our manager Kelly Oka who is the best in the business). I got into curling because of my mother. She had been an avid curler in various leagues at Navan when she convinced myself, my father, and my brother to start up a team on Wednesday nights. To say we had a horrible first year is an understatement. After a few years of curling Wednesdays, I had to add another day on as 1 day of curling was not nearly enough. I now curl the Wednesday Open league and Thursday Men’s league with hopes to add a third night in if I can only convince my fiancée to allow it.

I originally started actively looking at curling clubs for insurance because of a good friend of mine who is my curling teammate and is also related to the great Rudy Steski!  We had been chatting after curling one night when he mentioned that I should be insuring curling clubs and I haven’t looked back since. As a curler, the inside knowledge of the sport and facilities gives me an upper hand in knowing the coverage needs of curling clubs but there is also the “coolness” factor of insuring the places of my favourite winter pastime!