It was a busy weekend for the Whitehorse Curling Club, which held a series of events that succeeded in attracting a wide variety of both members and non members alike.

The club was also successful in achieving its goal of increasing membership for the upcoming season compared to last year's total.

"I think the weekend went very well," said Jon Solberg, business manager of the Whitehorse Curling Club. "We have got quite a few new members this year and our membership is up slightly. I think we are probably up about five per cent over last year, which seems to be a trend over the last couple of years."

Registration for the first half of the season concluded on Sunday, however

Solberg said the club is always looking to increase its membership and would do so if a particular league could accommodate it.

One of the highlights of registration was the Monday Night Mixed League, which got underway last night.

Going into the season, Solberg said the club was hoping to match the eight team total that was registered by the second half of last season. The club not only achieved this goal, but they increased the numbers to 10 curling squads, which is a significant improvement from the four teams registered to start the 2007 season.

"We have met all of our goals for league nights for now, however we are constantly looking to increase our membership in our league play," Solberg said.

This past weekend began with the Learn to Curl clinic, which dates back to the 1980's and is one of the longest running traditions at the club.

The clinic was held on Saturday and attracted 14 participants, which is a lower number than it normally averages.

However, this year had a rarity of three non-Yukon residents participating, coming from Nunavut and Juneau. The rest of this year's participants were from Whitehorse.

Junior Curling Coordinator, Suzanne Bertrand, was the head instructor at the clinic and had a few assistants to help out during the course of the morning and afternoon sessions.

The instructional clinic started with exercises to improve the participants balance and comfort levels on the ice with both walking as well as sliding. It also focused on aspects such as timing, gripping, releasing, line of delivery and sweeping.

Additionally at the clinic there was a special segment that taught individuals the technique of both stick curling and hack delivery. Participants were divided up into four teams and played a game to end the clinic, which went from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Bertrand said she was pleased with how the clinic went this year.

"I personally believe in it like 100 per cent," she said. "I think if you learn your basics properly that you will be more successful quicker and I guess I am just the type of person that believes in at least some instructor, I'm a retired teacher as well, so that doesn't help. Most of us will take swimming lessons or tennis lessons or golf lessons and curling is similar."

Bertrand has been involved with the Learn to Curl Clinic since 1986 and has been leading it for at least 12 years.

She admits to still being a little nervous each year it is held.

"It's an interesting experience for me all the time because I always fret a little the day before," she said. "So when people are still smiling and wanting to curl by 3 p.m. when we say time's up, that's a good sign."

In addition to the Learn to Curl clinic and registration, the club hosted a fundraiser for the Canadian Cancer Society appropriately titled Take Out Cancer.

The Take Out Cancer campaign was held on Sunday and featured a draw to the button, which supporters could participate in after making an individual donation.

Curling instructors were nearby, providing advice on both technique and safety to supporters that weren't quite as experienced in the sport.

There was no winner for the actual draw to the button, however all participants in the fundraiser were eligible to win door prizes that included two Air North flight certificates, $200 worth of Canadian Tire gift cards, a $100 certificate to the curling club's Pro Shop and Canadian Cancer Society Gift Bags.

The curling club agreed to match the total number that was generated up to $2,000 and the final amount raised was just more than $2,500, which Solberg said was a great start for the first time it has been held.

"I am really ecstatic with the turnout," he said. "We had a lot of people through the club doors, both members and non members. We'll most likely have more incentives for next year. I think the word will spread a little bit and hopefully be able to get a few more people out next year as well."

Scott Kent, the Yukon regional manager with the Canadian Cancer Society, said Sunday's fundraiser exceeded his expectations.

"It's nice when we can partner with other community organizations on those types of things," he said.

"Active living is a big part of our prevention messaging, so if we can encourage people to get out there and get active and go curling and participate in other sports than that's fantastic. It's a win, win for us for sure."