The gymnasium of St. Mary's school hosted a rally last night for the hundreds of volunteers for the Canada Cup of Curling, which is now less than a month away.

Designed to pump up their volunteer base, the event also put each volunteer in face-to-face contact over 15 different volunteer directors that head up various aspects of the event such as security, banking, medical, the Keith's Patch and communication signage.

According to John Boucher and his wife Judy, who co-chair the volunteers and merchandising committee, volunteerism has been the least of their worries.

"We've had over 350 applications, and fortunately, being a small area, the Kimberley-Cranbrook area, a lot of the directors, a lot of the other chair-people, they were able to get a lot of their volunteers on their own," said Jim Boucher. "But the response has been amazing."

An event like the Capital One Canada Cup of Curling allows volunteers, whether long-time or new residents, the chance to connect with and strengthen bonds with their community, Boucher added.

"For the success as they see nearing completion, or during [the event], it offers a lot of pride, that they were a part of putting this on, especially with TSN, the televising live on Saturday and Sunday, it means a lot to the volunteers," he said.

The event sold itself when it came to attracting volunteers, and people flocked to the organizers to get a chance to be involved, said Terry Morris, the event manager for the Canada Cup of Curling.

"The response has been great," said Morris. "When we first did the call for volunteers, we were full in six weeks. I've never seen that before in any of the Canadian Curling Association events."

From here on in to the event, which will officially kick off in 28 days, the focus will be on making sure each director knows what they are doing so they can filter instructions down to their group of volunteers.

Organizers have spent the last year promoting and building up excitement for the curling competition, and Morris is confident that the event will be a success, despite being held in a somewhat smaller market.

"The challenge is making sure you're out in the community creating the awareness for the event that's coming and we've done that ever since we've had the first press conference," Morris said.

The organizers will get possession of the Rec Plex on Nov. 25 and will spend the few days before competition, temporarily retrofitting it into a five-sheet curling facility, said Morris.

"People won't recognize it as an ice arena afterwards," he added.