Throughout the history of Aksarben Curling, Sigrid Festersen led, served, and provided continuity from one generation to the next. She saw our organization through successes, setbacks, building moves, and explosive growth. Our Sigrid Festersen Volunteer of the Year Award provides a way for us to honor Aksarben Curling members who go above and beyond in the same spirit as she did.
This year, the Aksarben Curling Board of Directors voted to honor Nic Ridder with this award.
If you’ve helped with any of our Learn to Curls, it’s likely that Nic was there – in a pair of very bright pants, armed with helpful tips and advice and meeting his quota of fitting in two curling puns. And while he’s helped so many new curlers slide out of the hack with their first rock, he’s also the key driving force behind organizing our league operations.
No matter the number of teams and number of weeks, Nic can put together a structure for how a league should run. He’s been instrumental in mapping out ways to get more curlers into popular leagues by adding bye weeks.
More structured leagues and better ways of naming a champion for each goes a long way in raising the overall competitive level within our organization, which in turn helps with retention as our curlers become more experienced.
We’ve leaned in to his expertise as we map out what leagues will look like with our future jump to dedicated ice, and the additional curlers and leagues that will bring. Our leagues and learn to curls are at the core of what we do, and we couldn’t do either without Nic.
While it seems like Ridder has been around forever, he only started curling back in 2018. He was quick to jump in and help where needed – offering not only ideas on where we could improve operations, but giving time and passion to every project he helps with. He perfectly illustrates the power of our volunteers, and we’re lucky to have him.
About Sigrid Festersen
Throughout the history of Aksarben Curling, Sigrid Festersen led, served, and provided continuity from one generation to the next. She was a terrific curler and an advocate for women's curling everywhere. She saw our organization through successes, setbacks, building moves, and explosive growth.
All future success of curling in Omaha can be traced back to a foundation Sigrid was so deeply involved with. While we lost Sigrid in 2022, Sigrid’s spirit lives on within our organization.
Read more about Sigrid Festersen and her legacy with Aksarben Curling.
