Growing up in Bethune, Bernadette McIntyre saw how the whole community volunteered their time and expertise to ensure they were able to have the experiences they wanted.
She has carried on that spirit of volunteerism, dedicating decades of work chairing bid committees and being involved with host committees at numerous national and international curling events.
Janet Perkin, a champion curler herself and SSHF inductee, knew McIntyre and encouraged her to get more involved as a volunteer after she had moved to Regina. In 1990 McIntyre began 26 years of service on the board of the Highland Curling Club where she continues to play and joined the Curl Regina board a year later. In 1991, she was the chairperson for the Southern Women’s Scott Championship which proved to be just the tip of the iceberg. In 1995 she was the chairperson for the provincial Scott Tournament.
McIntyre was the Curl Regina bid committee chairperson and host committee president for the 1998 Scott Tournament of Hearts. The Sandra Schmirler foursome had just claimed the Olympic gold medals in Nagano and their homecoming helped make the event a huge success. It was the first and only time that the women’s national curling championship out-drew the men’s Brier.
McIntyre would again serve as the Curl Regina bid committee chair for the 2008 Scott Tournament of Hearts and for three Tim Hortons Briers. She had the same role for the 2001 Canadian Olympic Curling Trials and the inaugural Continental Cup of Curling the next year. Her international hosting experience continued with the 2011 Ford Men’s World Curling Championships where she served as Curl Regina bid committee chairperson.
She said one of her most rewarding experiences was as bid committee chairperson and host committee chair of the Canadian Wheelchair Curling Championships in 2016. She held the same dual roles for the Canadian Curling Association/Canadian Interuniversity Sport National Curling Championships in 2014 and she was the bid committee chairperson for two Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling international spiels, taking on the host committee chair role in 2017.
McIntyre also achieved some notable firsts. She was involved in the Saskatchewan Ladies Curling Association and when it merged with the Saskatchewan Curling Association (SCA), she became the SCA’s first female president in 1999. She was also the president of the 2006 Brier Host Committee, the first time a woman held that position. She had also been the first woman to be president of the Canadian Olympic Curling Trials in 2001.
She was able to combine work with her passion as she spent 12 years on the leadership team for the SGI Canada Charity International Curling Classic. Half of her time was covered by SGI, her employer, and the other half she volunteered her time.
She was the head umpire at a provincial Scotties Tournament of Hearts and an under-18 provincial curling championship as a certified Level 3 official.
For her years of dedication, McIntyre received the Joan Mead Builder Award at the 2015 Scotties Tournament of Hearts.
Her involvement has extended beyond the curling ice as well. In 2018 she co-chaired the Ladies Professional Golf Association’s CP Women’s Open in Regina, she was also part of the Grey Cup Festival leadership team in 2013 and 2022 and spent 15 years on the Queen City Marathon Board.
McIntyre’s involvement extends well beyond the sporting world where she has served on more than a dozen other boards and councils over decades of volunteering her time.
Installed in the Saskatchewan Sports Hall of Fame on September 23, 2023.
