Today we begin a new feature highlighting some of the activities undertaken by GBI personnel that don’t fall into the strict parameters of their work. We spend a lot of time justifiably touting the good work that they do on behalf of GBI, our partners, and our public lands, but other pastimes are just too exciting to keep quiet. Our first installment of this feature: Kassidy Whetstone, archives technician and curler.
Kassidy Whetstone is an Archives Technician at the Lake Mead National Recreation Area in Boulder City, Nevada. She works cooperatively with the National Park Service to process, arrange, describe, and catalog nearly 90 years’ worth of park operational records from the establishment of the park to current operations. She is currently processing the Cultural Resources records, which consist of archeological project files, site files, and files related to the maintenance of historic structures and landscapes throughout park boundaries. Her duties include appraising, arranging, storing, describing, and cataloging the materials so that a collection finding aid can be published online for public access. She also assists with reference inquiries to contextualize the park records within the historical operation of Lake Mead (formerly Boulder Dam) National Recreation Area across Southern Nevada and Arizona.
November 9-12, Kassidy Whetstone competed at the USA Curling Arena National Championships in Eveleth, Minnesota for the local Las Vegas curling club, CurlVegas. The championship is the highest level of competition for arena curling clubs, which are clubs that do not have facilities dedicated to the sport of curling. Arena curling clubs often share ice with public skating and hockey, as is currently the case for CurlVegas. To qualify for the national championships, teams must compete in regional playdowns, for which the CurlVegas team competed in Atlanta, Georgia in late August. After qualifying at the playdowns, the team headed to Minnesota to compete at the Curl Mesabi curling club arena among 12 women’s teams and 12 men’s teams for the national title.
Whetstone competed with Team Knepper, playing as Vice Skip (co-captain) on the sole team representing Nevada and specifically Las Vegas. They finished 3rd in their pool and 6th overall for the women’s ranking with teams from places such as Houston, Silicon Valley, Dallas Fort Worth, Rocket City, Cleveland, and Sioux Falls. This is slated to be the last year that CurlVegas is eligible for the Arena Nationals Championships, as they are anticipated to open a dedicated curling facility in Las Vegas next year. After the facility is opened, they will become eligible to compete in the USA Curling Club National Championships.
Photo, left to right: Kassidy Whetstone (Vice Skip), Kim Strong (Second), Karla Knepper (Skip), Flora Fulgham (Lead)
