The Dartmouth Crossing Speed Skating Club won this year’s Intact Insurance Club Excellence Award and has received a $10,000 cash prize.
The cash prize will be used to support the skating club’s grassroots development project which aims to improve inclusion and diversity within the Nova Scotia-based club. The club aims to reach out to families with limited financial resources, as well as newcomers to Canada, and will increase participation opportunities for Special Olympics athletes by introducing a “Unified Sports” programming.
Intact Insurance is a longstanding partner of Speed Skating Canada, and is the main sponsor of the association’s Club Excellence Award. Since becoming a sponsor in 2021, Intact has donated a total of $400,000 to speed skating clubs through both the Club Excellence Award and the association’s former Podium Tracker program.
According to a release from Speed Skating Canada, four additional speed skating clubs – the Speedy Kids Oval Program in Halifax, NS; Club de patinage de vitesse Les Loupiots in Rivière du Loup, QC; Saskatoon Lions Speed Skating Club in Saskatoon, SK; and Vancouver Velocity Speed Skating Club in Vancouver, BC – were named finalists for the annual award this year. They will each be awarded a $2,500 cash prize to help finance their own respective initiatives.
Last year, Intact Insurance and Speed Skating Canada conferred the Club Excellence Award to the Iqaluit Speed Skating Club, which used the cash prize to fund its purchase of new crash mats to promote skater safety.
