[hallway]

ggwhiz (John) was happy to report :

What a month! 3 of our pairs are invited to Atanta for the first Youth NABC and one pair won the overall and are flying to New York this Wednesday (11th) for an annual awards brunch hosted by Queen Latifah no less.

John and Carole run bridge classes for 12 year olds at their school in Ottawa, Canada -

He said:
We are in the process of finishing off the school courses and it looks like our main event will be in the 30 table range.

BTW, I was thrilled to see the reaction to BBO of a couple of kids that had fallen off the pace by virtue of not paying attention during the initial learning curve. What a great motivator.

Carole and I have been doing this for some time from a high of 23 classes per term down to the present quota of 10 and all of them are 24 plus kids. Our Unit just moved to fund an extra 10 classes next year so we can certainly populate this effort.

We incorporated as a non-profit recently and desperately need to catch our breath, organize and recruit some volunteer help as so far, its basically just been the two of us. Lots of good vibes though and others are starting to come forward which will potentially expand our class numbers next fall by a lot. What we've been up to is at www.bridgexperts.com but I can't find the time to keep the activities up to date.

For example, our Unit gave some money to the Ottawa Boys and Girls Club and they have invited us to give a bridge intro during their Family Activities Days over the summer, generate enough interest in a lesson series in the fall and hopefully lead into full fledged bridge clubs.

Look forward to working on some of the finer points with you after we all recharge our batteries. Amongst the finer points might be how or where to handle parent and grandparent -child partnerships that the above project may develop.

The BIL's focus for our 6th year ( yes we will be 5 come Sept 3, ) will be fostering online practice/teaching sessions for the 6 - 15 year Youth group

CHICKEN and AZIR have been working with their groups now for the past 2 years. CRAWJODI is keen to get started and I would like to hear from other Teachers who would like to become involved.

The BIL Library has a section that is dedicated to the YOUTH Group and is ready to be expanded on so material / quiz / ideas are all needed so that this section can be developed.