Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Opening at Maria A. Shchuka Library - A Success

Last Saturday, the Chess in the Library officially opened its third location - the Maria A. Shchuka library. Whether it's the organizing members or the participation members, they were all great successes and it was a fantastic start for the program at Maria A. Shchuka.

I would like to welcome 3 new members who just joined our organization team. They are Lucas Sterling, David Sterling and Kostya Golovan. Of course, we cannot forget Jan Lazo who has already volunteered at Brookbanks before. They all did a wonderful job with organizing the meet last weekend and I'm sure that they will keep up the good work! I will be at this library for a couple more weeks just to stabilize the program there and let the rest of my team volunteering there get familiar with the routine of organizing the program.

As for the chess players who came to play in the library, around 20 showed up. I was so glad to see them excited about the new chess club at their local library!! I really want to take this chance here to thank all the supportive staff at the Maria A. Shchuka library who has helped the Chess in the Library program start up. There is one librarian who has contributed enormously toward our program and that is Janet. She is extremely supportive and very keen in making this program run successfully. One action that really touched me was that she called every single pre-registered player to remind then of the program the day before the program opened there. There are many other things that the staff there did for us such as promoting the program at school curriculum nights and taking a portion of their annual budget to purchase their own chess sets.

Without the librarians and volunteers who organizes the program, the Chess in the Library program at Maria A. Shchuka library wouldn't have been possible. Thank you!!!

2 comments:

  1. Thanks Yuanling,


    You are more than welcome....

    It was fun empowering your self-direction.
    The program is a win/win for all concerned. The kids will have fun learning and playing, the teens will learn organizational skills and get volunteer hours, and the librarians just have to sit back and smile .... look up an old tv series, it's called the A-team, the leader Hanibal used to sit back at the end and smile and say " I love it when a plan comes together..."

    Chess in the library is going viral.... I'm sure it won't be long the adults will asking to join as well....

    Good luck with you ambitious and very achievable quest to give chess the same kind of esteem and credibility that it has in other parts of the world...

    Good on you and all the volunteers,
    Janet

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  2. Yes, definitely, the program is beneficial to all of us! I'm looking forward to start up the adult chess club at MAS. Thank you for your support and everything you've done for the program!!

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