Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Bridlewood`s Grand Opening

Guess where I am right now? Three-Rivers, Quebec! :) This has nothing to do with the title above, but I thought that I might as well share the awesome news with everyone. I`m there for a french program called Jexplore and it`s such a wonderful place to improve your french. Si vous êtes seize ou dix-sept ans avant de juin 2011, vous pouvez inscrire pour le programme l'été prochain! :)

Anyways, back to the main topic - Bridlewood`s Grand Opening. Last Friday, June 25th, 2010 was the day that the Chess in the Library program officially became a part of the Bridlewood Library in Scarborough, Toronto. It was a huge success as our maximum capacity was reached (24 spots) and there were 4 more kids who waited for their turn.

I mentioned a few months ago that our next project would be to make a kid-friendly brochure that explains the basic rules of chess. Due to the craziness of the past few weeks (culminatings, exams, CITL festival, packing for Jexplore, etc) we only managed to create a handout. This handout was given out to all the particpants and their parents to enhance the learning experience. I clearly remember that there was one little girl who kept telling her opponent that the Rook was a strong piece because the handout said so. She was soooo cute! :)

Our volunteers and future leaders of the program at Bridlewood are Stanley Su, a 1500-1600 CFC chess junior who will be going into grade 9 next year and Mary Xu, an IB student of Victoria Park C.I. Stanley had his first experience of teaching a public group and although he wasn`t confident leading the group at first, time helped him to adjust his comfortableness. There is always a first time for everything and I strongly believe that one day, Chess in the Library will help Stanley become a great public speaker. Stanley and Mary, welcome to the team! Bienvenue à l'équipe!

Overall, everyone had a great time at the program and it seems like at Bridlewood, we don`t need to worry about participants, we need to worry about space! :)

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