My name is Michael Cohen and I am the chess coach and a Social Studies
teacher at Westridge Middle School in Orlando Florida. Westridge
Middle School is a Title-I school which means that over 75% of our
students are on a free or nearly free lunch program(very low income).
2003-2004 was the first year I began an afterschool chess program at
Westridge and I was amazed by the response. Within the first month we
had over 40 students playing and learning the game. I took these
students to 6 tournaments during the year, but in most cases where the
small tournaments did not offer pieces and boards for their games, my
students were forced to play with substandard supplies(junky 5 dollar
plastic sets). In addition, many of the students were not able to
afford the entries to the tournament even after they had been reduced
to 15 dollars or less. I did pay for many of them myself, but there
are just so many needy kids. I have purchased enough boards for about
20 students, but as I expect this coming year will bring a larger
response, I know I will need to have more supplies. Since scholastic
chess has always been targeted toward the upper class as far as
supplies go, I find it very difficult to have an adequate amount of
quality boards, pieces and clocks for my students to play with. If
anyone out there chess coaches, chess store, individuals) have any
type of supplies(clocks, boards, pieces), including notation pads or
even small donations please email me at and I will
give you the school's address and a phone number where I can be reach.
Thanks in advance from my students and myself for any responses I
receive.
-Mike Cohen (Chess Coach Westridge Middle School)


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Can't donate anything; I can only point you to cajunchess.com, which I believe
has the cheapest decent chess sets on the web, and might even, if I recall,
have a way to get some free stuff.