{"id":247374,"date":"2014-06-06T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-06-06T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/bridge-over-troubled-waters\/"},"modified":"2014-06-06T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2014-06-06T07:00:00","slug":"bridge-over-troubled-waters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/bridge-over-troubled-waters\/","title":{"rendered":"Bridge over troubled waters"},"content":{"rendered":"

Local bridge organizations marathon to fight Alzheimer’s<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hutton Marshall |\u00a0Uptown Editor<\/p>\n

Even for those in their youth, the looming threat of Alzheimer\u2019s Disease strikes fear into many in throughout our country. Today, more than five million people are living with the disease in the U.S., and it\u2019s the country\u2019s sixth leading cause of death. <\/p>\n

And with someone in the U.S. developing Alzheimer\u2019s every 67 seconds, those entering their golden years rightfully worry about its onset. Thankfully, the fight against Alzheimer\u2019s doesn\u2019t have to be as villainous as the disease itself. In fact, members of the Redwood Bridge Club, along with the San Diego Bridge Academy housed within it, say many of its patrons fight Alzheimer\u2019s every day they play at the club.<\/p>\n

Players there have dubbed Bridge, a four-person card game played worldwide, as \u201caerobics for the mind.\u201d Keeping the mind active and engaged, especially in one\u2019s later years, has been shown to ward off the onset of Alzheimer\u2019s and Dementia.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The Redwood Bridge Club in Balboa Park (Photo by Carlos Dervis)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cBasically, there\u2019s two different ways you can use your mind: One is passive thinking; one is active thinking,\u201d said David Walters, the bridge academy\u2019s director. \u201cReading would be passive thinking, but playing a game like bridge would be active thinking, so anything that involves active thinking is good\u2014just like you need to exercise your body, you also need to exercise your mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

So while combatting Alzheimer\u2019s is arguably ever-present at Redwood, on Saturday, June 21 \u2014 the summer solstice \u2014 the club and academy will ramp up their efforts. Joining a nationwide campaign called \u201cThe Longest Day,\u201d the club will host bridge activities from sunrise to sunset to fundraise for the Alzheimer\u2019s Association.<\/p>\n

\u201cStudies have shown strong links between games, such as bridge, and successful aging,\u201d stated Robert Hartman, CEO of the American Contract Bridge League, in a release for the fundraiser. \u201cThe game alone challenges and stimulates mental acuity, but there\u2019s also a strong social aspect that can aid with successful aging. With support from our members \u2026 we can continue raising awareness and funds for the disease and hopefully introduce bridge to a new audience that can benefit from the mental stimulation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Held appropriately on the longest day of the year, the bridge club will open its doors from 5:30 a.m. until 8:30 p.m., holding several rounds of bridge, as well as a couple meals and other activities, in order to entice the community to come play and donate to the cause.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince this is our first year to participate, I don\u2019t anticipate a huge crowd \u2014 perhaps a hundred or so \u2014 but this will be the first in a string of annual \u2018Longest Day\u2019 events,\u201d said Redwood\u2019s Stuart Showalter, co-director of the event.<\/p>\n

The bridge academy will also hold several classes, as well as preparing a large dinner for the club\u2019s patrons. Walter said the academy will donate 50 percent of proceeds from the day\u2019s classes to the charity drive.<\/p>\n

The Alzheimer\u2019s Association recommended Redwood set their target fundraising goal at $1,600, but Showalter reported that \u2014 two weeks before the event \u2014 Redwood has already secured $1,700 in donations. This in part is because of to donations from Harvey Milk\u2019s American Diner, local Starbucks branches and Sycuan Casino.<\/p>\n

Redwood will open its doors for 15 hours that day, and although games would not be constant throughout the day, Walters said that amount of bridge is no easy feat, especially considering the average age at the Redwood Bridge Club is around 65, with members as old as 100.<\/p>\n

\u201cEndurance is definitely a factor with that amount of bridge,\u201d Walters said. \u201cWhen I was playing competitively, I would limit myself to two rounds a day, which was about eight hours.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last year, 160 bridge clubs nationwide rallied behind the American Contract Bridge League to raise more than half a million dollars for the Alzheimer\u2019s Association. The Redwood Bridge Club and the San Diego Bridge Academy hope to help surpass that amount this year. Those interested in learning more about participating in The Longest Day event may contact Trish White at\u00a0jjdgwhite@gmail.com or Stuart Showalter at showalter.stuart@gmail.com.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Local bridge organizations marathon to fight Alzheimer’s Hutton Marshall |\u00a0Uptown Editor Even for those in their youth, the looming threat of Alzheimer\u2019s Disease strikes fear into many in throughout our country. Today, more than five million people are living with the disease in the U.S., and it\u2019s the country\u2019s sixth leading cause of death.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":247375,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11555","_seopress_titles_title":"Bridge over troubled waters","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11547,11551,11555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-247374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-news","category-uptown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247374","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=247374"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247374\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/247375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}