The morning after the fire, stunned Norfolk residents stood mourning the still smoking wreckage of the curling club, some fighting back tears, others consumed with rage. 

           The fire touched many in a deeply personal way, and none more so than Jon Barbagallo, the club’s ice manager and veteran of Norfolk’s Volunteer Fire Department. “The club was a part of my life as far back as I can remember,” he said. “My parents used to drag me there rather than pay a babysitter. Growing up, I spent as much time there as I did at home. Seeing the flames was heartbreaking, like watching my own house burn down.”

          Out of the ashes, a spontaneous movement has sprung up to resurrect the club. Norfolk’s State Senator, Kevin Witkos, emailed constituents urging donations to the club’s website. A call for help came from another unlikely source, Joe Palladino, sports columnist at the Waterbury Republican American.

          “Curling will return to Norfolk,” wrote Palladino. “They will be counting nickels and dimes to get this project rolling, but it will roll, like highly polished granite atop a pebbled sheet of ice.”

            Curling Club President Mary Fanette reported receiving over $11,000 within a week after the fire, many from curlers throughout the northeast and Canada. “”People seem to send in money almost effortlessly,” she said.  ”We even got an email from a curler in Serbia.”

          But it will take more than nickels and dimes to rebuild. The payout from insurance will fall far short of the funds required to complete the project, which some calculate could top $500,000.

 Curling club members have been meeting weekly to cope with everything from fund raising to assessing demolition and cleanup costs and weighing offers of free services that have been flooding in. C.A. Lindell’s in Canaan has volunteered to provide building materials at cost and several area architects have offered their talents for free, including Norfolk’s Pete Anderson, who recently submitted a detailed plan for renovating the City Meadow at no cost to the town.

Such generous impulses are part of a larger concern over how the alleged arson and other criminal charges will be dealt with when the case comes to trial later this year.

           There was no hiding Barbagallo’s feelings about those who set the fire. “They burned the building down,” he said, “but they insulted so many.”

          Rest assured that one day men and women and boys and girls will be back at the hog line, screaming “Hurry,” and rejoicing over a hack weight takeout.