All aboard the Chess Bus

All Aboard In Castlemaine

The Castlemaine Chess In Schools Project- Chess-Squared- has formed a partnership with The Golden Hope Foundation- a local youth foundation promoting mental health.

The Golden Hope Foundation has recently purchased four 1970’s double decker buses to be refurbished and used as youth outreach spaces in the rural Central Victorian community. One bus will be dedicated for chess activities.

Another bus will be the focus for movie theme nights, organised and run by teenagers, and another bus will be a media centre where young people will prepare a four page lift-out for the local newspaper- The Castlemaine Mail.

While Golden Hope has gifted the buses to the youth of Mt. Alexander, the next step will be sourcing funding to run programs from the buses.

Chess-Squared co-ordinator Steve Carroll said “we hope to employ 3-4 teenagers to run a program on the bus at the local Saturday morning market where all members of the community- young and old- will be welcomed to have a break from their shopping and drop in for a game of chess.”

The exact manner of the activities will be decided by the working group as part of Castlemaine Secondary College’s Year 9 Independent Learning Program.

Golden Hope founder Max Lesser explained: “The upstairs seating has been reconfigured to provide 7 booths and a teaching area at the front. It could serve as a mobile classroom or community chess- café. Downstairs are a couple more booths, and space for art and design activities- where people can use geometric templates to design their own unique chess sets.”

It will be young peoples’ task to design, promote, and manage the activity to give chess an even higher profile within our community.

It is also planned for the bus to visit each of the 12 primary schools at least once during the school program.