SiVY Volunteers Continue to Make a Difference

By Lynn Johannesen

Our website describes SiVY as an “all-volunteer organization.” But what does that actually mean? Mostly, it means that volunteers are SiVY. Without them, outreach to youth bridge players would disappear

To honor those volunteers, SiVY holds an annual appreciation party. This year, the party was moved online. A group of about 40 volunteers and SiVY Board members met on Zoom for conversation and prize drawings, with time for members to share their best memories of the past year and make suggestions for the future.

The party was followed by an online individual tournament, offered without charge to the volunteers, in which 32 players participated. This fun and social format had players changing partners every 2 hands

Top finishers of the Individual game were:
Kevin Rosenberg – 61.51%
Doug Burke – 60.32%
Arthur Zhou – 59.52%
Michael Hu – 59.13%
Randy Ryals – 57.54%

The prize drawing was conducted by emcee Frank Smoot using an online randomizing tool.

Of course, 2020 is presenting new challenges for all of us. In these unusual times, it’s heartening to look back at what SiVY has accomplished since mid-2019. The statistics below gathered by SiVY Board Member Michael Bodell and shared by SiVY President Randy Ryals at the June appreciation event.

• Of the 24 SiVY-supported players at the Las Vegas Youth North American Bridge Championship (YNABC), five were attending for the first time. Collectively, they earned more than 250 masterpoints, and every participant earned at least one masterpoint.
  
• The 2019 SiVY bridge summer camp worked with 26 young people, including nine who had never before played bridge. A total of 21 volunteers worked with the campers during the week.
• The 2020 Bay Area High School Championship hosted 40 high school players from 12 schools.
• Attendance at SiVY pizza parties and events in the past year totaled 149 young players. Although in-person pizza parties and events are impossible right now, volunteers have organized virtual pizza parties and casual Friday mentoring sessions to give youth players opportunities to engage online.
• SiVY school programs had 341 student-class-sessions (if one student attended five classes, they would count five times). Classes reached 38 students new to SiVY bridge instruction.
• Of the 282 ACBL-wide Youth members who earned masterpoints in 2020, about one in seven are from District 21. Of the 41 District 21 Youth members who earned 843 masterpoints through June 6, 2020, at least 80% have been associated with SiVY.
• Among ACBL Juniors (a category that also includes Youth), the top 500 have won at least 0.27 masterpoints in 2020. Of those, 59 are District 21 Juniors, and more than 80% of them have been associated with SiVY.
• For the calendar year 2019, 501 Juniors (including Youth) earned at least 3.22 masterpoints. District 21 was home to 82 of those players.