Reno Youth Bridge, Inc.

  RENO YOUTH BRIDGE, Inc 6005 Lake Geneva Drive

 Reno, NV 89511 

 budbrewer@budor.com 

INVITATION TO LUNCHEON ACBL CHARITY TOURNAMENT

 Dear Bridge Player:  As you know, Reno Youth Bridge, Inc. is a Nevada 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation organized last summer to promote and administer the teaching of contract bridge to Washoe County School Children as an after school activity.  With the cooperation of Jeff Freeman, Director of Student Services, a pilot program was established by the District in which seven schools were selected to participate.  This year's program was fully funded by the generosity of a few interested parties in our community and was staffed by its four Directors and almost 20 volunteer teachers and assistant teachers from the Reno Unit of the ACBL.

   Kathy Lane, President of Reno Youth Bridge and Cody Yau take a break from playing on the      computer software program, Bridge Base On-line, while Nick Bibby ponders his next bid.

This coming school year, we hope to expand that program into additional schools where many students are beginning to become interested in leaning how to play bridge, the most popular card game in the world.  The American Contract Bridge League provides some teaching materials, but Reno Youth Bridge contributes bidding boxes, playing cards, duplicate boards, cases, and other materials to each of the participating schools along with assuming responsibility for the payment of teacher fees.  Our budget for the 2009-2010 school year is approximately Seven Hundred and Fifty Dollars ($750.00) per school and we expect to have five new schools initiating the bridge teaching program and five schools continuing current classes and adding new student participation.  We hope to raise these funds by contributions from individuals like you who have a special appreciation for the game and the values enjoyed by those that play it. 

We are planning to hold a special ACBL sanctioned “Charity” duplicate bridge tournament at the Lakeside Tennis Club on Thursday, June 11, 2009.  The game will be preceded by a buffet luncheon at 11:30AM with at least four entrees along with several choices of salads.  The meal includes refillable beverages.  Your donation of Twenty Dollars ($20.00) per player is tax exempt and includes lunch and your card fees. The charity Tournament will begin at 12:45PM and conclude at or about 4:00PM.  Master point awards will be double those otherwise received in a regular club tournament. 

Space is limited to fifteen tables so please act now to make your reservations for participation in this Reno Youth Bridge Charity Tournament by promptly sending me your checks in the amount of Twenty Dollars ($20.00) per player made payable to Reno Youth Bridge so you wont miss out in this competition for extra master points.  I will confirm your registration in the tournament by e-mail or by telephone upon receipt of your partnership’s tax exempt contribution.  On behalf of Kathy Lane, President, Grace Martin, Vice President and Molly Rakestraw, Corporate Secretary, and all our volunteer teachers, I thank you for your interest in Reno Youth Bridge and look forward to seeing you at the Lakeside Tennis Club on June 11, 2009.

Bud Brewer

Director

 

Greetings from Reno Youth Bridge, Inc.  This website is here for all  parents and students in the Truckee River Valley.  Come read about the fully funded program that Reno Youth Bridge is sponsoring at the middle shools, grammar schools and high schools here in Reno and Sparks.  Launched last fall with the cooperation of the Student Services Department of the Washoe County School System, and combined with the generosity of 17 volunteer teachers from the Reno Unit of the American Contract Bridge League, Reno Youth Bridge set up a pilot program to teach contract bridge to students in after school activity classes. The original schools selected were Billinghurst Middle School, Dilworth Middle School, Mendive Middle School, Mathews Elementary, Taylor Elementary and Galena High School.  In the spring of 2009 more schools will be added and those completing their first session will begin a second semester of bridge lessons in early February.

Billinghurst Middle School, Mathews Elementary  and High Desert Montessori Charter  School  bridge teams are pictured here with their faculty advisors, Collett Gilmore, Carol Andrew and RYB teachers, Koz Nojima, Rich Scoggin, Dick Schutte, Loni Byloff and Joyce Remsen.  Having finished their first 16 hours of classes learning how to bid and play bridge, the teams were awarded their Reno Youth Bridge Tee shirts by Kathy Lane, President of Reno Youth Bridge at ceremonies recently.  Also in attendance were John Young and Molly Rakestraw, assistant teachers for Reno Youth Bridge.  Commenting on her team's progress, Billinghurst faculty advisor and math-science teacher Collett Gilmore says this group has been working hard to learn the basic tenets of this fascinating  game.  At the same time as they were awarded the Tee shirts, they were introduced to Bridge Base Online, a sophisticated internet platform where they can learn, practice and play with other bridge players all over the world.

For pictures of other classes click on the  link:   "School Teams" on the upper right hand side of this page. of this page.

Study shows--

that students who learn and play contract bridge do better on standardized tests for math, science, reading and social studies. Researcher Dr. Christopher Shaw of Carlinville, Illinois did a study of comparable students in the 5th grade through the 8th grade. He separated the students into two groups, one that was taught how to play bridge and the other that was not.  Each year the students took  the Iowa standardized tests for the four subjects.  The results showed that the group that learned to play bridge did progressively better on the standardized Iowa tests than those who did not.  The degree of difference increased every year.  These results were astonishing.  By the third year comparisons showed that those that played bridge scored 20-40% better than those that did not.  This astounding record was explained by Dr. Shaw when he said that bridge players gained skills in inferential reasoning, a skill that cannot be taught but is learned when playing bridge.

  Statistical Study