Chess players in Altoona

This past fall, Altoona joined the ranks of other libraries hosting LEGO Clubs, but that’s not all!  In Altoona, kids can choose LEGOS or chess–or switch back and forth. 

Regina Arndt, youth services librarian, says:

The kiddos who come for LEGOs haven’t shown much interest in learning chess, but sometimes the chess players will take a break and play LEGOs for a while and then come back to chess…I’ll probably change it for the 2013-2014 school year and schedule the clubs to meet on separate nights.  Currently, I’m not planning on continuing this program throughout the summer months but I haven’t decided for sure.  If I do continue in the summer, I would schedule the clubs on separate days.

I picked up a book on how to play chess, so I am most definitely a novice.  One of our staff members is a pretty good player and volunteers his time to help the kids learn new strategies.  Wal-mart and Shopko each donated $30 in gift cards to the library for the purchase of chess boards.  That really helped.  The library provides snacks.