- November 18, 2024
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For 98-year-old Mitchell Dibbs, who showed up at the Palm Coast Duplicate Bridge Club’s Longest Day Alzheimer’s awareness fundraiser Saturday, no game is as engaging as duplicate bridge.
“I used to play poker, but after I got into duplicate bridge, no game was ever as interesting,” he said. Dibbs said he feels it helps keeps him sharp. He’s been playing for about 50 years.
Intellectually challenging games like bridge, some experts say, help to stave off age-related conditions like dementia. That’s one reason the American Contract Bridge League started the participating in the American Alzheimer's Association’s Longest Day fundraiser last year, holding tournaments to benefit the association.
Last year, the ACBL raised about $575,000 through about 160 clubs nationwide, Palm Coast Duplicate Bridge Club Longest Day organizer Patrick Heading said.
This year, the Palm Coast Duplicate Bridge Club decided to pitch in, holding an all-day series of bridge tournaments and soliciting donations and corporate sponsorships, and holding a silent auction.
About 100 people showed up for the first of the day’s three tournaments, volunteer Sylvia Diane Caviggia said, and more came in throughout the day. The club has about 300 members, and the event raised about $3,500, she said.
For some of them, like Dibbs, the club is like a second home.
“It’s the sociability of it; it’s a social game to me,” he said. “I’m not interested in making points or anything like that, but if I enjoy playing with a person, it doesn’t matter if they win or lose.”
Bridge can be a close community. Dibbs arrived in Palm Coast years ago, joined the bridge club, and found member Mike Dalton, 65, who he’d played with decades ago at a bridge club in Brooklyn.
But it’s a game for all ages.
Michael Fitzpatrick, 16, and a member of Flagler Palm Coast High School’s bridge team, showed up at Longest Day with his bridge instructor, Spanish teacher Per Berg, and his teammates.
“It’s just a fun card game, and I like card games,” he said.
The FPC team competed in nation al competitions last year in Atlanta, and will go to Las Vegas this coming year, Berg said.
The same aspects of the game that make it great for older folks also make it a good game for sharp kids looking for a new way to use their heads, he said.
“I teach IB, and it’s a complicated game,” he said. So I get a lot of really bright kids, and it’s a good challenge for them.”
For more information on the game of bridge or the ACBL, visit acbl.org. For more information on the American Alzheimer’s Association, click here.
