News & Comment
BridgeWhiz: Teaching Bridge Online to Young People Across North America
The ACBL Educational Foundation (ACBLEF) is announcing an initiative to teach thousands of young people across North America to play bridge, using an online teaching model developed by Bridge for Youth (B4Y) in the Seattle area.
The program, called BridgeWhiz, will be funded by the Foundation and directed by Al Bender, who built Seattle’s successful program with David Dailey and an active group of other volunteers. Bridge for Youth has agreed to serve as an adviser to the initiative.
BridgeWhiz will launch this October, aiming to enroll about 1,000 students in grades 4-12. Classes will be free to students. More information about the classes will appear in an article in the August Bridge Bulletin, and recruitment of students will take place in September.
Recruitment and training of teachers, who will be paid, will begin immediately, in partnership with the American Bridge Teachers’ Association (ABTA). We will also be looking for volunteers to serve as class assistants. Both teachers and assistants need to be proficient at using Zoom and good at working with youth. Watch for future communications about these opportunities.
Initial funding for BridgeWhiz will come from the Educational Foundation’s program budget, a generous gift from the Hawai’i Bridge Center, and gifts in tribute to Peggy Kaplan and Betsy Ross Bare for youth bridge education. The Foundation will soon begin seeking additional donors so that we can sustain and expand the program in future years.
Click here if you'd like to be notified when student registration is available.