If you love words and winning — and helping children learn to love words and winning — the Columbia Crest Lions Club has the fundraiser for you: Scrabble With a Cause.
The Lions Club will host its second annual Scrabble event on March 21 at Seton Catholic High School in East Vancouver. It’s guaranteed to be COOL (six points), no, make that AWESOME (12 points plus bonus of 50 for using all seven letters = 62!).
That’s because the tournament has expanded into two separate contests, sanctioned and nonsanctioned. The latter is aimed at amateurs who want to dip a digit into the waters of casually competitive play. It’s open to anyone at any age and skill level and includes three rounds of play. Organizers are mostly following the rules, but they’ve also injected some extra fundraising fun in the form of “cheats” you can buy for a few more bucks: a peek at the dictionary, a VOWEL (11 points) on clearance.
“It was really friendly,” said last year’s champion, Marc Kahn of Vancouver, who donated his $100 prize back to the Lions.
Kahn, 66, said he regularly plays in a similarly casual Wednesday night Scrabble group and also does The Columbian’s crossword PUZZLE (26 points) every day, which keeps his skills sharp.
“It’s not that I’m such a great player, but I do really well at that level,” Kahn said. “When I showed up at last year’s tournament, I found a bunch of people used to playing in their living rooms, so I kicked BUTT” (six points).
“But when it comes to serious competition,” Kahn added, “these people are totally brilliant and they spend a great part of their lives studying words.”
One of those brilliant people is 24-year-old Portlander and 2014 National Scrabble Champion Conrad Bassett-Brouchard, who will be playing in the sanctioned Lions event, open only to members of the North American Scrabble Players Association.
“That’s a totally different type of Scrabble playing,” said Kahn. “Very cutthroat. Very intimidating. At that level, it’s a highly psychological game.”
Kahn won’t challenge Bassett-Brouchard in that contest, he said. But he noted that the young Scrabble star also is planning a demonstration of his PROWESS (62 points) by undertaking 10 simultaneous games on 10 different boards against 10 different opponents.
“I want a piece of that,” Kahn declared — even though he’s pretty confident that Basset-Brouchard will simply “walk around and kick everybody’s,” you know, six-point body part.
Scrabble With a Cause revenues will continue the Lions’ ongoing work promoting youth literacy and alleviating hunger and poverty in Clark County and around the GLOBE (eight points), or WORLD (nine points). Registration prices are $25 for the sanctioned contest, including six rounds of play, prizes and the hailing of a big WINNER (nine points) or VICTOR (11 points) or CHAMP (16 points). In the nonsanctioned contest, it’s $20 for an individual, $30 for a two-person team and $15 for those younger than 20. Visit www.scrabbleplayers.org to join the association and qualify as “sanctioned.”
The sanctioned contest begins at noon, one hour earlier than the 1 p.m. nonsanctioned event, so casual players will be able to watch the pros a while before mixing it up themselves. It’s all set for March 21 at Seton Catholic High School, 811 N.E. 112th Ave.
Walk-ins are welcome, but the Lions prefer that you register ahead of time so they have a sense of who’s coming. Visit www.ColumbiaCrestLions.org to, um, ENROLL (six points) — make that ENLIST (no, still six points) — no make that COMPETE (seven letters, 63 points!).
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