A Better World
Nonprofit uses chess to help kids
Triangle Business Journal – by Todd Cohen
Date: Friday, January 14, 2011, 6:00am EST
Four years ago, in the dining room of his North Raleigh house, engineer Bill Clausen started teaching chess to some neighborhood children. Today, that informal Raleigh Chess Academy has evolved into Chess Achieves, a nonprofit that uses the game as a tool to help kids develop confidence and learning skills.
Operating with an annual budget of $85,000, Chess Achieves serves roughly 90 children at six schools in Wake County, most of them private elementary schools.
And next month, Chess Achieves will serve as host to the annual North Carolina Scholastic Chess Tournament, an event expected to attract 500 kids from throughout the state to the Raleigh Convention Center. “Chess, as a form of logic, problem-solving and discipline, is a great way to motivate young people to think for themselves and to become better students,” says Hector Perez, a co-founder and member of the board of directors of Chess Achieve and executive director of the Johnston Health Foundation in Smithfield.
The statewide tournament, which is sponsored by the North Carolina Chess Association, a licensee of the United States Chess Federation, provides a great opportunity to showcase the quality of Chess Achieves’ work, as well as the impact chess has on children and its benefit to the community, Perez says.
Clauson, whose father introduced him to the game at age 12, launched the first team at his own high school in Spring Hill, Fla. An engineer who has worked for Siemens, John Deere, Harley-Davidson, and Briggs.
Source: http://www.bizjournals.com
Excellent idea.