San Mateo Unit 498                         August  2024 

Happy Summer to all our Unit 498 Members!

Have you seen our new space at the Villa in San Mateo?  It's bigger, brighter, and offers an even friendlier environment for our Unit and Club games.  Many thanks to Raad Bunni and Jennifer Kuhn for renegotiating our agreements with the Villa, and to Board Members Janice Carter and Rita Armstrong for their support making the move happen.  We’re excited to host our Tuesday and Friday afternoon and Wednesday evening Club games and our monthly Unit games in our new space.  Hope you can join us soon!

The Longest Day

We christened the new room with a very successful Longest Day Game on June 22.  A flotilla of volunteers sailed in the Friday before the Unit Game to prepare the French Room for its maiden voyage.  The room looked terrific on Saturday, especially after Sandra Tilch and her team finished decorating it.  The game and lunch were well organized and we raised awareness and valuable funds in the fight against Alzheimer’s disease.

You can still Play with a Pro or participate in a home game at Raad Bunni’s house.  Contact our Longest Day Committee Chair Barbara Lewis for more info:  blewis341@gmail.com

Individual donations help our fundraising efforts the most and are so very much appreciated. Please know that all donations make a difference and you don’t have to play to participate.  Our fundraising page shows you how to join our team and get your friends involved to extend our fundraising efforts.  For those dealing with Required Minimum Distributions, this Longest Day fundraising for Alzheimer’s is a wonderful beneficiary.

Longest Day Donation Page

Unit 498 Sectional - August 3 - 4

You’ve saved the date and now it’s time for our Unit 498 Sectional, August 3-4, 2024 at the Palo Alto Bridge Center, 432 Stierlin Road in Mountain View.  

We’re offering pairs and team games for players of all levels and experience, and every event awards SILVER points. Games start at 10:00 AM and 2:30 PM.  

Saturday morning's Art Weinstein Trophy game welcomes players who may not have played in tournaments before, and is limited to those with fewer than 100 master points. Winners of this game have their names engraved on the trophy and are granted perpetual bragging rights.   

Go to http://www.unit498.com/events for the tournament flyer with the schedule of all games and information on parking, food, and the partnership desk.

All-Western Regional: August 27 - September 2

District 21 is sponsoring the ALL WESTERN REGIONAL  from August 27 – September 2, 2024 in Santa Clara.  

Come enjoy the California Bay Area sunshine and wide diversity of cuisine. Hosted by the Hyatt Regency Santa Clara, games will be back in the large downstairs ballroom. 

If you want to make a vacation out of it, be sure to make your hotel reservations before August 5th.

Tournament Flyer

MENTOR/MENTEE GAME

We have three more online Mentor/Mentee Games on the schedule for 2024 — August 22nd, September 26th and October 24th at 6:30 pm on BBO.  Please contact Lauren Rosen at lrosen498@gmail.com for more information or if you would like to join the game as a Mentor or Mentee.

Kai Eckert, our very own Unit Coordinator, had the honor of representing the United States in the FISU University MindSport Championship hosted in Entebbe Uganda from June 24^th to June 30^th. A long 30-hour travel day led to an amazing experience full of exploration, friendship, and, of course, Bridge!  The competition held Bridge and Chess events attended by a total of 23 different countries and at least 200 mind athletes. There were 11 teams in the Bridge competition, comprised of USA, Germany, Poland, France, Slovakia, China, Chinese Taipei, three Ugandan teams, and Burundi. USA placed 7^th out of the teams. Kai feels they could have done better but there were many firsts for everyone on the team so the nerves were taking up at least 25% of the team's brain power.  Besides Bridge, the team got to enjoy the local cuisine and explore Kampala as well as the botanical gardens and the Animal Conservatory! Kai and the team feel so lucky to have the opportunity to compete on an international scale —  it was truly a dream come true! Kai is still posting vlogs on his personal channel covering his experience if you are curious to see how it all went check out the channel here: https://www.youtube.com/@BridginWithKai

Congratulations to Kai!

Local News from the NABC Bulletin

In Memorium - Patti Frederick

A loyal member of our club for over 20 years, Patricia Frederick, passed away. For years, Patti was running the only bridge club in the San Mateo/Redwood City unit (unit 498).  We used to hold our once-a-month game on Saturday mornings at her club in Burlingame as well some of our special celebration games at her place on Monday evenings.  Patti loved to hold special games with pot luck dinners.  For years, she had struggled to keep her club open for players in the San Mateo/Redwood City area.  

To facilitate directing and playing in the CABC games, she joined the club as a member some 20 years ago. When ACBL started going to electronic automation, Patti struggled big times with trying to get game files going on her computers, which she dreaded!  So, after I retired, I used to spend considerable amount of time at her club repairing equipments like her automatic card dealing machines, and BridgeMates.  She was more than happy to let me deal with all those headaches.  Through that experience, I learned a lot about how club management worked, knowledge that eventually allowed me to take over CABC club management when Marian decided to pass the baton. 

During the pandemic, she was unable to financially sustain holding on to her location in Burlingame.  She had to give up her lease, and was unable to rent another place that was viable for re-opening her club after the pandemic was over. 

For the past few years, she was battling lung cancer.  Patti was always very caring for all her friends, even though many of them were also her regular clients frequenting her club.  Most of our members who belong to unit 498 had enjoyed many games at her club.  And many of our long time 506 members had also been good friends of her. 

She will be missed. 

Robert Ng

Please visit our Unit 498 website for more news on new members, rank advancements, results and schedules for our Unit and Club Games and more.

The 2024 Board of Directors