To USCF members;

A year ago the NJ State chess federation decided to begin the Sets For Vets program with Bill Bluestone as chairman and Dr Frank Schott, Joe Ippolito and myself as committee members. We began the program for NJ VA hospitals, however like topsy it just began to grow! I spent many long hours accumulating a list of hospitals until we had a list of 146 VA hospitals with at least one in every state. We sent almost 200 sets to Iraq and Afghanistan, 6 chess sets, boards and bags were sent to every hospital totaling over 900 sets. We also realized that many of the wounded vets are bed ridden with spinal injuries and purchased and sent 159 Chess game computer stations to the hospitals. This of course took money to be accomplished.

The NJ State Chess federation began the program with a donation of $2500 last September, followed by $1,800 collected in the donation Jug at the USATE tournament along with donations by Steve Doyle, DR. Leroy Dubeck, DR Frank Schott and Tim Redman we had a sizable amount of money. Steve Doyle also announced that Aetna Insurance Co. had donated $2500 which brought the total to over $9,000. In May of 2005 the NJSCF had appropriated another $4,000 which enabled us to complete the goals for the first year. Please note that every dollar is used to purchase chess equipment.

We have now begun to supply Braille sets to the hospitals @ $22 each. At this point 15 sets have been delivered and our financial balance is $30!

A special thanks to Hanon Russell at Chess Café for supplying sets and games at great discounts. To Barbara DEMaro at the Chess Trust for processing the many donations, To Joan DuBois, my USCF contact. To Glen Petersen for placing articles in Chess Life and helping to set up the WEB site uschess.org/setsforvets.

And of course, to Beatriz Marinello for her support.

Our goal for the coming year is 300 Braille sets and 200 chess master 8000 games along with more regular sets. Estimated goal is $10,000!

We also are looking for people or chess clubs to adopt a hospital to visit on a regular basis to play chess with the vets and perhaps teach them about the game. All information is on the uschess.org/setsforvets site. If interested Please contact me.

If you feel free to read this, thank a vet!

Herm Drenth setsforvets@aol.com