Petoskey           Duplicate   Bridge Center
       (PDBC) 

Can Petoskey Middle School’s Builders become Bidders as well? Yes, if Allison White, Bernadette Burkhardt and several other players have anything to say about it.

 

Allison and Bernadette are leading the Petoskey Duplicate Bridge Club’s effort to introduce the game to the schools’ boys and girls.

 

It reflects nearly a year of preparation that included persuading the school’s principal to give it a try and a trip to Chicago for Burkhardt and White to get up to speed on the ACBL’s national youth program.

 

The first two weeks in October got off to a slow start, with just one table of players.

 

But then the adviser to the school’s Builders service club and another teacher stopped by the classroom to ask what was being taught. When they returned a week later, they brought a dozen students from the 6th, 7th and 8th grades with them – “enough for four tables,” Bernadette said happily.

 

The students are being given a grounding in bidding, offensive and defensive card play and scoring. They use duplicate boards and bidding boxes to reinforce the ideas of a game of skill.

 

The program is slated to continue through the year’s end and may be extended through February.