Duplicate Bridge players are invited to the second annual Dwight D. Eisenhower Bridge Benefit from 1 to 5 p.m. July 25 at the Eisenhower Presidential Library Courtyard, 200 S.E. Fourth Street.
“Join us in celebrating and preserving the legacy of the ‘Bridge Player in Chief, ‘Dwight D. Eisenhower,” invites Carol Sunde, Benefit director and member of the Abilene American Contract Bridge League that sponsors the event with the Eisenhower Foundation. “We wanted to have an event at the Eisenhower Presidential Library because Eisenhower was such a bridge player.”
Benefit co-chairwoman and fellow bridge player Georgia Reynolds says Eisenhower learned to play bridge while attending West Point and continued to play the game throughout his life.
“Dwight D. Eisenhower played with some very big bridge players of his time,” Reynolds says. “He was very strategic-minded, and duplicate bridge is very strategic.”
Proceeds from the event benefit the K-12 educational programs, Ike EDucation, according to Reynolds.
“Ike EDucation is working hard to educate people about President Eisenhower and he is more popular now than he ever was,”she says. “He was a man that stood up for principles that matter.”
Promoting the Eisenhower Presidential Library, Museum and Boyhood Home is also a goal of the Bridge Benefit, and players and their spouses receive free passes to the museum.
Those interested in attending the event are encouraged to pre-register by emailing [email protected] or phone (785) 263-6791; the registration fee of $10 can be paid the day of the event. For more information, contact Sunde at (785) 263-0582.
The Abilene American Contract Bridge League, active for about 50 years, organized the first Eisenhower Bridge Benefit at the Eisenhower Library last year with 10 teams participating from Abilene, Salina, Concordia, Wichita, Hutchinson and Great Bend, according to Sunde. The winners took home a traveling trophy featuring a bust of Eisenhower with a plate inscribed with their names; that trophy will be passed on to this year’s winners.
Duplicate Bridge, the most widely used variation of contract bridge in club and tournament play, features the same bridge deal replayed by different sets of players.
“The object of the game is to score more than everyone else playing with the same cards,”Sunde says. “It’s a game of what you do with what you have, and it’s the best card game I’ve ever played and I’ve played a lot of card games.”
About the Eisenhower Foundation
To honor and champion the relevance today of the life and leadership of Dwight D. Eisenhower through compelling programs and events that celebrate his legacy.
