From Neighbors 4 Neighbors:
| Edison's Chess Team Needs Funding For National Contest | |
 Last year, Edison Park Elementary's chess team made headlines in Florida's chess world after pulling off a big victory at the state championships.
The Rooks placed first among teams in the K-5 category. Four players on the team finished in the top 20 at the championships, in which more than 1,500 students competed. With the big win behind them, the team has now set their sights on competing at the 2008 Burt Lerner National (K-6) Elementary Championship in Pittsburgh, which takes place next month - but they need monetary help to get there. Rook coach Webber J. Charles is an art teacher at Edison Park and seemed an unlikely choice to coach the chess team when it was started three years ago - because he didn't know how to play chess. But Charles says it was the challenge that made him take the coaching position. He bought computer chess games, and he and his students would practice every day and they learned how to play together. The team's success hasn't been unnoticed. Parents and the Florida Leadership Council, a privately owned tutoring company in Miami, provided the team with T-shirts, new playing boards and carrying cases for chess boards. Easter Seals also contributed by paying two of the team's three coaches for instructional time. And, Title One chess, a Miami-Dade County Public Schools program, has provided logistics, planning, transportation and some equipment. Charles says the team needs about $5,000 for the Pittsburgh trip. He plans to take eight students and three coaches. Among the team's 18 members is fifth grader, Philip Julien. Chess has helped him battle dyslexia. Now Julien is the fourth best player on the team. This past summer the group practiced rigorously for two weeks at the Miami International Chess academy, in the Little Havana area. The academy's director Blas Lugo thinks the Rooks have a shot at taking the title, and Coach Charles feels the same way, "We'll prepare for it because we want to make sure we can make history." To see the story, click here. To help the Edison Park Rooks, call Charles at: 786-269-4337. Checks should be made payable to the Edison Park Elementary PTA. | |
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