After retiring as a professional pilot in Texas in 2007, I moved with my husband Earle to the small town of Berkeley Springs in the eastern panhandle of West Virginia. After settling there, we made many friends, some of whom were bridge players. I knew nothing about the game and had no interest (I thought). One day in late 2010, my friend Marie Hardy invited me to a luncheon, and I went, not knowing that after lunch, bridge would be played. I watched a bit, then got thrown in on a round and was hooked. I started taking lessons and kibitzed my first duplicate game within two weeks.

In early 2011, I joined the ACBL (District 5) and played 2-4 times a week in sanctioned and social bridge games. It didn’t take long for me to realize that I could get even more of a bridge fix by going to some tournaments. I twisted Marie’s arm and she helped me talk our Life Master friends Larry and Sandy King into going to a regional with us. Thanks to their coaching and excellent team skills, Marie and I got our first gold in Pittsburgh in 2012. I made Life Master late in 2014, just before Earle and I moved to Bucks County, PA to live closer to family.

In Pennsylvania, I found my new bridge home at member-owned North Penn Duplicate Bridge Club in North Wales, PA. The directors and members were very welcoming and before long, I found lots of partners. I very much enjoy playing at North Penn several times a week; it’s a true community of interesting and fun folks. I’m also glad to be a member of District 4 and Unit 141. Opportunities to play are plentiful and the local tournaments are run well by volunteers who clearly care very much about giving players a quality experience.

I often say there are lots of similarities between flying and the game of bridge. Both pursuits require serious concentration and focus, and both are great diversions…you can’t really think about much else whether you’re flying a plane or playing a bridge hand. But there are two big differences as well. During my career, I was able to learn pretty much all I needed to know about aviation to be a successful pilot. But there is no way I will never learn all there is to know about the game of bridge! And the other difference? Well, even the worst mistakes at the bridge table are generally not fatal. Hopefully. But to be on the safe side, choose kind partners.

I feel blessed to be a part of District 4 and love that this district steps out in front with new and different ways to make bridge fun for its members and others who come to our area to play. I feel like our district leaders are out in front in many ways.

I just joined the Board of my local club (North Penn) and will be looking for ways to become more involved in Unit and District events. While I definitely don’t aspire to “running” anything, I’m a decent worker bee and take direction pretty well. In any case, it’s probably time to think more about giving back a little more to this game that has been such a big part of my life over the past 10 years.

I am a retired teacher having taught at Dundalk CC. for almost 15 years in the health department and served as Athletic Director, Curriculum Coordinator, tennis and volleyball coach and acting Dept Head. I was given time off from the college to obtain my PH.D. from the University of Maryland with my dissertation on what should the 3 Maryland Community Colleges focus their curriculums for their communities. Having a burning desire to open my own health business, I worked 2 years doing cardiac rehab, teaching healthier lifestyles with the local physicians. This gave impetus to opening up my natural medicine and weight loss center with my pharmacist partner in 1990.. We were in the business for 22 years until I decided to retire and move from Maryland to York, Pa.

My passion in life was tennis and I was able to get a singles ranking in Maryland at number 14 and number one in women’s doubles which qualified us for Nationals in Florida. I was successful in getting a 4.5 ranking many years ago and after having foot surgery and now future knee replacement, I am hoping to get back to playing fun tennis. I enjoy kayaking, skiing, biking and walking my two dogs and being with my grandchildren. I have 2 adult children who live in Bel Air with my 6 grandchildren who rank in age from 21 to 14.

I credit my 91 year old mentor playing with me and my 4 months of duplicate bridge lessons from Cathy Brown. I only play on Wednesday morning,s as I love that group at White Rose who are fun and relaxed but also competitive. I have attached a pic taken during the conovirus pandemic. Would like more internet play bridge sites if possible since we are still social distancing.

My “story” is one that I am confident has never happened before, but may now happen again soon enough. I am a 55 year old attorney who lives in Chester County, Pennsylvania, and I learned rudimentary bridge from my parents back in my teenage years, but never played it outside the home or more than a dozen times with them.

Now, jump ahead 40 years to 2018. While visiting my recently widowed father in Boca Raton, who had taken up duplicate bridge himself with more energy after my mom passed away, I offered to join him and play duplicate bridge at a popular club down there. We did fine, and I got the bug/itch to play more. My busy schedule up north was not very conducive to active in-person bridge play. I started playing on BBO online, basically every night after my family went to bed. Over the past two years, I have accumulated about 300 ACBL points through BBO, but they were almost exclusively just “online points.” In turn, I became a Junior Master very quickly, but was not in any position to gain greater master rankings without in-person matches.

One Saturday, after playing for about 6 months, I contacted the folks at Valley Forge Bridge Club and asked if they could find me a decent playing partner if I showed up for a Saturday afternoon game. Unfortunately, the only unattached person with whom they could pair me was a rather elderly gentlemen who had not played himself in decades and who was admittedly not that great way back when. He was understandably awful in bidding and card play, but we were also playing at a very low level at the club. About a third of the way through the hands, I realized what was happening and changed approaches, jumping ahead into what seemed the best contracts. Amazingly, we ended up winning the match with 1 1 1 across. I mention the details only for one reason – it tainted my view of trying to continue my rare local efforts at any in-person bridge.

Whenever I returned to Florida, though, to visit my father – which I did for a weekend about every 3 or 4 months for the past 2 years, we would play that Saturday at Jourdan’s Bridge Club, or another club down there more recently. It was not that often, and Jourdan’s never provided ACBL with the points earned from my matches. They were not much, but they would have allowed me to reach Club Master level sooner. I recognized the absence of such black club points recently, and shared it in emails with Jourdan’s and ACBL, but nothing has come of it.

At the end of all of this, I just figured that I would forever be stuck as a Junior Master despite 300 ACBL points (with more on the way) because I only play online. BUT, along comes COVID19, and the only good thing to come from COVID19 for me is that ACBL started recognizing certain tournaments online as black points to support the game and support local clubs. Through such more open policy, I was able to gather up almost 17 black points in the past 2 months while in the “comfort” of my pajamas (figuratively or literally, depending on the day).

I love the game, and I enjoy the additional interpersonal and social aspects at in-person matches, but my schedule just does not allow me to actively join any local club events. The lack of a local partner does not help as well. I expect this to change as my professional career crests and my family responsibilities change (and my remaining teenage daughter at home moves on to college), but for now I will continue to enjoy the game on-line every day.

This is the long story to the brief comment above as to my “unique” journey. I suspect I am amongst the first players (if not the very first player) to earn Club Master online, and I am grateful to the ACBL for the way it has addressed the COVID19 situation to give me this opportunity.

Thanks for reaching out. Hopefully, ACBL will stay the course and its many players will in the near future be back at tables both in person and online enjoying the game.