Elizabeth Pilbin prepares to launch her 40-lb. stone down the ice.

The school bus pulls up, seven schoolchildren pour out, huddle briefly with their coach, David Beers, in the foyer of the Norfolk Curling Club, then fan out over the ice, broom in hand, gliding over the pebbled surface of the curling sheets. This is the Norfolk After School Program in action. The curling class, one of many offerings, is open to fourth, fifth, and sixth graders. In the first exercise they learn that the surest distance between two points is not a straight line. To hit a cup on the far side of the ice, they must aim a yard or two to the side but give the 40-pound stone a slow, compensating rotation. “Sweep! Sweep!” yells the coach when the stone seems a little “light” to reach the target, and the children furiously sweep the ice in the stone’s path. The participants on a recent day were Rachel Barbagallo, Lydia Beers, Ben Crone, Ginny DeCerbo, Charlotte McDevitt, Elizabeth Pilbin, and Evan Sataranna. As Jonathan Barbagallo, another of the coaches, proudly noted, “Some of the kids already have better form than many of the adults.”

Photos by Bruce Frisch.