November 2022 - 36

Great Ideas have Grown Big Legs
Updates from the Ed Foundation
By Kristen Frederick
ACBL Educational Foundation Executive Director
$54K: That's the amount raised
through the efforts of organizers,
pros who donated their time, and the
players who participated in the ACBL
Educational Foundation's charity
auction to raise funds for Junior programs.
Nineteen young people were
able to attend the 7th World Youth
Bridge Transnational Championships
in Salsomaggiore, Italy, knowing
that their expenses were partially
funded with a grant from this event.
Robert Todd, newly elected president
of the foundation's board of trustees,
called it " a resounding success, " and
added that the foundation " looks
forward to finding innovative ways
to support more young people playing
bridge. "
The foundation has named this
fund Spark! and it currently holds
the residual funds not used for
expenses in Italy. Its purpose is to
develop and support older Junior
players (ages 20-26) within their
colleges, businesses or communities.
We hope ACBL members will provide
us with ideas on how to grow this segment
of young people. We will then
take the best ideas to the next level
with funding.
Boost is another program which
has grown legs. Again, from President
Todd, " The ACBLEF and the ACBL
are working together to help teachers
and clubs rebuild their beginning
bridge programs. This is a vital part
of helping us return to face-to-face
bridge. We are excited to help recruit
new players all over the country. "
And then there's BridgeWhiz, with
its second year in full swing. It grew
from being a foundation program to
becoming its own entity, established
as a single-owner nonprofit (the
owner being the Educational Foundation).
Its new address is bridgewhiz.
org, but it is still reachable through
the ACBLEF portal.
In addition to Al Bender, our head
coach and program manager of
BridgeWhiz, we grew another pair of
legs with the hiring of Keith Hafen
as assistant BridgeWhiz program
manager.
Hafen, a Ruby Life Master, has
Students are
looking for you!
Update your teacher profile
in MyACBL today.
36 | Bridge Bulletin | November 2022
been teaching bridge for two years
and was one of the inaugural teachers
for BridgeWhiz. Now he'll help
organize the program. After 40
years in the IT industry in southern
California, he retired to northern
Virginia. Besides teaching with the
BridgeWhiz program, Hafen runs
two in-person games and directs and
teaches on cruise ships.
Lastly, in the growth category,
ACBLEF will be introducing a grant
Keith Hafen
cycle process during the latter half
of 2023. These cycles will happen
twice yearly and will enable us to
review all requests for funding ($10K
and less) concurrently. Committee
members will evaluate their alignment
with the foundation's mission,
its metrics to measure success and
determine the level of funding to be
provided with available funds. The
process will also provide more time
to help applicants better construct
their applications, if necessary, and
avoid last-minute applications.
As always, November is the month
of giving for the foundation, and we
ask you to help us sustain our hatchlings
for the future. Please consider a
gift to the ACBL Educational Foundation
now and in your future plans.
You can support general foundation
program needs, BridgeWhiz or Spark!
These categories are broken out on
our donation page at acbleducationalfoundation.org/donate.php.
We thank
you for the many blessings you have
already sent our way and wish you a
lovely holiday season.
http://www.foundation.org/donate.php
November 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of November 2022
