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U of L Chess for Life program receives $8,300 donation

Jan 19, 2020 | 7:00 AM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – The Chess for Life program has received a nice financial boost.

100 Women Who Care’s Lethbridge chapter has donated $8,300 to the program.

Chess for Life was set up at the University of Lethbridge a few years ago by Dr. Lance Grigg, an associate professor in the Faculty of Education, following a conversation with a local judge.

He had mentioned the possibility of teaching youth how to play chess as an alternative sentence for those involved in the criminal justice system.

The Chess for Life team is made up of Grigg, Josh Markle and Riley Kostek and together they work with 15 to 20 youth who “are odds with the law”, offering chess lessons.

“We meet on Fridays weekly on [U of L] campus and as part of their probation requirements or sometimes even counselling requirements, youth who are involved in the justice system will come for up to two or three hours a day – usually their requirement is around 25 hours of chess instruction with us. So, they’ll be with us for at least a few weeks,” Markle told Lethbridge News Now.

Markle is an instructor in the Faculty of Education at the U of L.

“Chess is a great game for teaching all types of great critical thinking skills, problem solving, patience, but there’s a bunch of different games you could use, so there’s nothing inherent in chess that’s doing it, except maybe we’re passionate about chess and that just happens to be what we chose to use.”

He added that some of the youth involved don’t have many “positive experiences with others in their lives”, so one of their goals is to provide a safe space for program participants and help create positive interactions with the community.

The crew also works with students at Red Crow Community College’s Lethbridge and Stand Off campuses, with Tsuaki Marule serving as the lead instructor.

“We do a lot of work in the classroom as well,” Markle said.

“I think we were out to a half dozen schools and more than a half dozen classrooms – nearly a dozen classrooms, hundreds of kids. So, we’ve gotten a lot of support from the school district as far as that goes too, and we’re going to continue that into the future as well.”

Additionally, Dr. Grigg is working alongside the Lethbridge Correctional Centre to establish a chess program, and the team is planning its first ever Lethbridge Scholastic Chess Festival for next spring.

100 WOMEN WHO CARE – LETHBRIDGE CHAPTER

The local branch of 100 Women Who Care has been able to raise over $175,000 for 17 different charities in its four years of existence. The first 100 Women Who Care group was established in Michigan in 2006.

The concept of 100 Women Who Care is to have 100 women gather together and each bring $100, with collected funds going towards local charities. Since starting in Michigan many years ago, it’s grown worldwide with more than 900 chapters, expanding to include men, people, kids and teen chapters.

The investment in Chess for Life is part of the University of Lethbridge’s SHINE campaign. More details on SHINE can be found here.

“In addition to this, I should mention that we’ve been really fortunate to get a lot of support from the community, we’ve had previous U of L alumni [who] have donated to the program and that’s what originally kind of kept the lights on,” Markle told LNN.

“Sunrise Rotary has given us a lot of money particularly with our work – we also work in schools, particularly elementary schools, and then the 100 Women Who Care donation is going to help us move to the next step of the program.”

He said right now, Chess for Life mainly operates out of the U of L, but the crew is hoping to expand to a more central location in Lethbridge.

“So [in the] downtown, closer to programs that these individuals are accessing as well and integrating it more into their lives, I guess. It’s [the donation] helping us expand what we’re already doing.”

For more details on the Chess for Life program, visit shine.ulethbridge.ca.