{"id":18349,"date":"2017-09-13T16:38:50","date_gmt":"2017-09-13T20:38:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=18349"},"modified":"2017-09-13T16:38:50","modified_gmt":"2017-09-13T20:38:50","slug":"after-a-half-century-aurora-bridge-club-set-to-play-last-game-in-town","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/after-a-half-century-aurora-bridge-club-set-to-play-last-game-in-town\/","title":{"rendered":"After a half-century, Aurora Bridge Club set to play last game in town"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir <\/strong><\/p>\n

After over 50 years of being an outlet for card-savvy players from Aurora and beyond, the venerable Aurora Bridge Club is preparing to deal its last hand in its namesake town.
\nOn Friday, September 29, the venerable \u2013 and continually growing \u2013 group will total up their scores after nearly 50 years in the former Aurora Public Library building on Victoria Street before their move to Newmarket. Nevertheless, they hold out hope that some day they will be able to return.
\nThe move is not a decision the Aurora Bridge Club has taken lightly, but a decision that had to be made as their current home will soon meet the wrecking ball paving the way for Library Square.
\nThe Club has been searching for a new home within Aurora\u2019s town lines since Council reiterated its decision to demolish the old library and adjacent seniors centre earlier this year.
\nWhile Council also tasked staff with helping groups using the facilities, including the Bridge Club, find new homes, the sheer size of the club\u2019s regular games made it a challenge to find suitable space within Aurora.
\n\u201cWe are very disappointed that the Town of Aurora could not find space within Aurora for our club,\u201d says Anna Kennedy, President of the Aurora Bridge Club. \u201cI find this unacceptable as we have spent 50 years in Aurora and I do not believe the Town does enough to support its senior population.\u201d
\nNevertheless, available Town facilities could not accommodate all members without cutting games and the number of members able to participate.
\n\u201cWe looked at everything in Aurora, looked at every church that was available, had four real estate people looking for us in Aurora, had the Town, after we asked them to find something, and the only thing we came up with was Trinity Anglican Church,\u201d says Ms. Kennedy. \u201cBut they could not accommodate all of our games. We would have to lose two games on Wednesday if we stayed there and they wanted $500 more for rent.\u201d
\nAfter placing an ad in The Auroran looking for more space, they received a bite from the Newmarket Veterans Association. Although they were reluctant to move to Newmarket, their space just off Main Street proved to tick all the necessary boxes.
\n\u201cWe\u2019re devastated,\u201d says Ms. Kennedy of the move. \u201cWe\u2019re still keeping our name, we\u2019re not changing it, and we\u2019re saying to the Town, \u2018You don\u2019t have a spot for us now, but we\u2019re hoping you have a spot for us in the future.\u2019\u201d
\nEach year, she says, the Bridge Club will offer a PowerPoint demonstration to Council driving home their message that they need space and they want to come home.
\nThe last time they presented to Council, Councillor Sandra Humfryes dubbed the club \u201cAurora\u2019s best kept secret\u201d and these are words Ms. Kennedy says have stuck with her, steeling her resolve that \u201cthis will never happen again.
\n\u201cAs long as I am president, people will know they have a bridge club in Aurora,\u201d she said. \u201cI decided then and there that if we have to move, we\u2019re going to be moving with people knowing we\u2019re there. We will be contacting Councillors continuously letting them know that even though we are in Newmarket, we are the Aurora Bridge Club and they should remember us. If they really want to do something for seniors, they will find us something.\u201d
\nIndeed, the benefits that bridge provides to our aging population has been key in their fight to find a place to stay in Aurora. While the club appeals far beyond just the senior demographic, it is a significant portion of the membership.
\n\u201cFor our seniors, it gave them a place to go. They can go to the Seniors\u2019 Centre, but they can only play bridge once on a Monday and that is not ACBL bridge,\u201d says Ms. Kennedy, noting the American Contract Bridge League allows participants across North American to see how they stand against groups across the continent. \u201cSeniors are becoming a greater population in the world today and we should be focusing more of our Federal, Provincial and Municipal dollar towards seeing that they stay healthy. They have a lot to offer our community still today. Even though they might be over 70, they are a vibrant community unto themselves.
\n\u201cIt is so stimulating to our seniors because they go out and get a vibe from it that\u2019s \u2013 can I say it is as good as marijuana? It gives them a hit you don\u2019t get elsewhere and I think that is why they come back.\u201d<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After over 50 years of being an outlet for card-savvy players from Aurora and beyond, the venerable Aurora Bridge Club is preparing to deal its last hand in its namesake town.
\nOn Friday, September 29, the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":18295,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/2017-09-14-03.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-4LX","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-23 14:23:50","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18349"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18349\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}