Business was hopping at noon on Friday, June 10 as locals in the agricultural field descended on the Stettler UFA store to celebrate Farmer Appreciation Day with a free lunch.
The annual event had a special fillip this year, as the Stettler location was randomly chosen to host the Kevin Koe curling rink, which won the Brier Cup this year and went on to storm the international sheet and take the top spot there, too.
The rink, comprising, in addition to skip Koe, Ben Hebert (lead), Brent Laing (second) and Marc Kennedy (third) and sponsored by UFA, was on site for photos, signatures, and just to chat — proudly showing off their Brier cup.
Koe, who had been to Stettler during his curling career, said that he curled his first provincial competition in the community.
“It was the best provincials I’d been to,” he said. “It’s a great curling community.”