87% of our students live below the poverty line, which is currrently $22,000 for a family of four. That's even harder to live on in New York City than in the rest of the country. The money you donate will give these kids educational experiences they would not otherwise be able to afford. Because we bring so many kids to tournament and I work on salary, your donated dollar is spent extremely efficiently and goes really far. For example:
- $40 sponsors a student to play in a weekend Marshall tournament. Playing in the Marshall is the first introduction my students get to a time control slower than G/30, and it's an essential part of getting over 1800.
- $133 ($70 hotel; $35 entry fee; $28 train) pays for a student to go to Amateur Team East, where they play 6 slow time control games against strong players and analyze them with me. It's the equivalent of 36 hours of serious chess training.
- $160 ($70 hotel; $40 entry; $50 train) pays for a student to play in the State Championship in Saratoga Springs.
- $500 pays for National Master James Black to play in the Liberty Bell Open. Playing in the open section of these top tournaments is an important training experience and one his family is unable to afford without help.
- $650 pays for a student to play in Junior High Nationals in San Diego. (flights to CA are pricy)
- $1500 This is a pipe dream, but maybe someone would be excited to sponsor it. I'd like to organize a mini-US Chess School for the Young Black Masters Club (Justus Williams, Josh Colas, James Black, Jehron Bryant + Nigel Bryant), where they study intensively with GM Gregory Kaidanov for 2 days, 10 hours/day. The $1500 covers Kaidanov's expenses and payment, and is a generous discount on his normal fees. If you sponsor this in full, you would be welcome to observe.
- $5000 pays for 6 students (and two teacher coach/chaperones) to compete in the National High School Championship in Nashville, TN. Last year, IS 318 finished in 2nd place by half a point. We have kept our three highest rated players (they are in 8th grade this year) and we hope to make history by being the first junior high school to win the section.
- $30,000 pays for 40 kids to play in Junior High Nationals.
donation update!!
Many thanks to Jan Newton of Goddesschess.com and its blog, goddesschess.blogspot.com for her donation, which will pay the entry fees for IS 318's girls to play in Girls Nationals. (Her donation was not given specifically for this, it was given generally, but our Assistant Principal/ BudgetMaster John Galvin decided we would go to Girls Nationals to honor Jan's generosity. Thank you so much and know our girls are ecstatic!)
Many thanks to Marc Widmaier and an anonymous donor for their generosity!
Many thanks to an anonymous donor for sponsoring $500 of the $1500 needed for the Kaidanov mini-camp for the Young Black Masters Club. This sponsorship is contingent on getting the remaining $1000, so please consider giving if this idea interests you!
20 comments:
"$500 pays for James Black to play in the Liberty Bell Open..."
No offense but it's a serious error to take money for EF's and hotel for tournaments with large $$ prizes. I suggest you x this from the list.
also, 1500 for an exclusionary club based on race... that's just reverse racism. i'm gonna start asking for donations for a chess club for white youths
Interesting comments. I would counter that I'm trying to serve the students I have in the ways that they most need help.
It happens that all of my strongest players are African American. If I had a student who was white and over 2200, I would of course include him/her in the group. But I don't. I know the Black chess community in NY are very proud of these kids and what they've achieved, and I'm hoping this idea might appeal to someone to fund.
As for James playing in a strong tournament, it's what he needs right now for his chess development. If someone doesn't want to sponsor that, it's ok, sponsor something else.
Thank you for the thoughts!
Lizzy - Please ignore the racist comments. You are doing good work, and have no reason to be ashamed of what you are doing or asking for. My question is .. is there a 501(c)(3) through which you are accepting the donations? That is important to attract charitable funds.
Wonderful work you are doing, Elizabeth! Good luck and all the Best! And I hope you write a book about it! "Chess for Success" was a great one by Maurice Ashley. Here is my own review of it: http://tinyurl.com/6emu9mx
How is this a club based on race? The chess club reflects the racial make up of the school. Also, you are an idiot.
Interesting blog: http://bradenbournival.com/chess_players/elizabeth_vicary/
Because IS 318 is a public school, donations are tax deductible. We will send a receipt from the principal that will serve as a tax document.
Torbjorn Bjorklund,
Prata du Svenska ?
Din ord ar verkligen bra.
Anonymous,
Tack! Ja, jag pratar svenska.
On a related note, why does the Samford Fellowship always seem to go to people who don't truly need it?
Why is the USA so hard-up to produce a world champion even from among Americans who weren't born in this country. Nothing against them, but if Bobby Fischer had emigrated from Russia or some other country outside of the Americas, would the average USA born person have gotten that excited over it? I doubt it. What would be the point?
And if a Russian wins the world championship, then good for them!
We're very pleased to be able to help and will give IS 318's Fundraiser as much publicity as we can once the Pay Pal account is set up. You and your fellow teachers and coaches are doing great work with the young people. We need more Elizabeth Vicarys and people like you! I only wish our donation could be larger.
I want everyone who reads this to know that Goddesschess did not put any restrictions on how our donation could be used. It was the folks at IS 318 who decided that the funds would go toward sending a team of chess femmes to the Girls' Nationals. We are honored by their application of our donation in this way.
Jan Newton
Goddesschess.com
Goddesschess.blogspot.com
I think American chess suffers because of the abundance of interesting and lucrative options available to talented kids. However bad economic conditions are right now, there is an array of great choices here that suck talent out of chess and into other fields of endeavor.
Elizabeth, why the last comment deleted? Is it telling everybody that how you are exploiting the topic for your own selfish reasons!
It was attacking one of my students.
more throwing money at minority groups for wierd political agendas... superlibs like E Vicary think it's their duty to help out minorities in life. if you think this is gonna help their chess, think again...
Anonymous above...
You are stupid...
To the Anonymous with the throwing money, You seem to have had a really hard and deprived life, seem extremely bitter- maybe couldn't get a handle on your dreams, Anyway cheer up there's always hope for your future. You definite sound depressed and pessimistic- a very different [personality from the usual upbeat , optimistic,classy and intelligent chess player I'v encountered. Hope the mental outlook improves for you, if not there's always affordable therapy..some therapists have a sliding scale payment option.
To the Anonymous with the throwing money, You seem to have had a really hard and deprived life, seem extremely bitter- maybe couldn't get a handle on your dreams, Anyway cheer up there's always hope for your future. You definite sound depressed and pessimistic- a very different [personality from the usual upbeat , optimistic,classy and intelligent chess player I'v encountered. Hope the mental outlook improves for you, if not there's always affordable therapy..some therapists have a sliding scale payment option.
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