4th Annual Hough Street School Chess Tournament Fundraiser is a Success

On Saturday, February 25th, Hough Street School Chess Club held its 4th annual chess tournament fund-raiser to raise money for Meher's education. The tournament was a huge success, with over ninety competitors, as well as lots of volunteers and supporters all helping to raise over five thousand dollars. I was able to be in town for the tournament and witness all the support and effort and it was very exciting. Special thanks to Maggie Gruber, Hough Street School, Zein Bertacchi (who made and served her delicious falafel and hummus!), CEO Dominic Oetinger, and our countless other volunteers.

Also, thanks to Joe Ridgway, who took photographs of the tournament, which you can view here.

Another Successful Chess Tournament Fund-Raiser!

On Saturday, May 30th, Hough Street School Chess Club held a very successful chess tournament at Hough Street School in Barrington, IL as a fund-raiser for Meher. Thank you to the many people who volunteered their time to make this possible, also to all of the families and children who participated and continue to support Meher. Special thanks to Hough Street School Chess Club for hosting the tournament, and Grandmaster Yury Shulman, Maggie Gruber (teacher at Hough Street School), Brian Gruber (our film-maker), Pradip Sethi, and Kiran Frey.

Also thank you to the following supporters for their generous donations:
Virginia Golembiewski
Sam Oliver
Debra Bakal
Ted Fountas and Andrea Olness
Jonathan Nyland and Kelly Logue
Janet Zullo
The Kolasinski Family
Gierlach Family
Regina and James Roland
Mona Juneja
Quest Academy, which raised funds through another Chess Tournament


Here are some images from the tournament at Hough Street School:

Some of our many volunteers sell food at the tournament.

Children concentrating on their next move.

GM Yury Shulman autographs a copy of his book.

Friends in Berlin

The Berlin Metropolitan School in Berlin, Germany, recently completed a school-wide "Math Week." This included a coin drive fundraiser entitled "It Makes Cents!" The children brought coins in everyday and sorted, graphed, and counted them. The money raised went to both a local and an international cause: the school's new library and Meher.


Here are the school's student council representatives taking all the coins to the bank (complete with a police escort!) . The Drama and Music Department also contributed with proceeds from their production of "Little Red Riding Hood."

This is a graph from Ms. Utecht's first grade class. They recorded the different denominations of coins that came in everyday. The children are excited to know that they are helping a little girl far away in India, and the connection is even more real to them as it is through someone many of them are familar with (I worked at the school for two years before moving to New Delhi.)