Future of Bridge

If you weren't playing on the Saturday of the May Sectionals or were too busy executing a triple squeeze, you missed quite an event. It took place in the basement. It was where twenty-seven middle school kids came together to play in a Youth Pairs event. They played the same first 18 boards that were played upstairs and judging from their scores, they handled the boards quite well.

They were from a pool of students from 5 participating schools in Unit 223 that traveled to Blanchette Park by bus, provided by the Effingham School District. The teaching program is spear-headed by Chris Shaw and his wife, Mary Beth. A key figure instrumental in organizing the program is Debra Owen, Assistant superintendent of Effingham school District. They were assisted by teachers Rita Speagle and Rosa Milleville of Beecher City, Debbie Weiler of Dietrich, Kim Heal of Effinham, Pat Brumleve of St. Anthony's in Effingham, and Jean Sehy of Teutopolis. Grant money from Bill Gates was used to teach these individuals by Ron Diehl in the spring of 2007 to teach them Mini-bridge. Collectively, these individuals volunteered their time to build a program that includes 50 students that travel to different venues during the school year to play in tournaments. They will also be sending two Pairs to the First Junior Youth Nationals to be held in Atlanta in July.

It was wonderful to see the “kids” play and achieve results that were not far off from the “adults” upstairs. They thoroughly enjoyed the experience of playing cards and then gulping down pizza. The top three pairs were awarded trophies and they all received Detroit Nationals souvenir bags, generously provided by Bill Arlinghaus (Chairman of the Nationals) and delivered by Rick Beye.

We hope to bring the kids back to future tournaments and one day you may even see them at your table “upstairs”. Clearly, Chris and Co. have found a formula to attract and maintain the interest of kids of this age to play bridge. Maybe seeing them succeed will inspire people from our Unit to undertake a similar task of educating kids to play bridge. It will most likely take the efforts of people who are retired or School teachers who already have access to the students and the School facilities. In the long run it will be worth the efforts, or, we can continue to sit around and bemoan an aging bridge community.

Anyways, congratulations to Chris and his cohorts for running such a successful program and we look forward to seeing the “future of bridge” storm through Blanchette Halls again.

Sasanka