Family Game Night : September 2009
This game night location was suggested by Shawn who works at Elderwood in West Seneca, NY. This game night was a part of their National Assisted Living week. It was a unique opportunity for us to introduce gaming fun to friends and family of all ages that have not played board games for a long time. There was plenty of room for the 47 people that played games on Saturday the 19th. A few people arrived after we started and I was too caught up in the game fun to take more pictures 
John Rusac, from the West Seneca Bee newspaper publication, stopped by early to take some pictures of his own and talk about games and game nights.
Drinks and cookies were supplied and I brought a few bags of pretzels and chex mix and two 13″ x 9″ trays of andes chocolate covered brownies and some lemonade. The games on the menu were Likewise! (A family party game), Nacho Loco (a fun light strategy card game) and Snorta (a party game where all ages can act silly and make animal noises).
It was great to have some local board game fans and game night veterans stop by to help show many of the residents of Elderwood how to play the games of the night. Above, the finer details of Snorta are explained by Lenore and Alberto.
The game night also encouraged families to visit and play games with their parents and/or grandparents that live there and meet some of their friends too.
Young and old filled the room, tried some games and shared some laughs. This group is playing a game of Nacho Loco.
This group was one of the loudest laughing, I had to keep them under control They were showing some gaming love with Likewise!
The pictures here are just a small sample of the people that were playing that evening. For more pictures you can see them in the photo area at my Facebook page.
At the end of the evening I gave away 3 copies of Likewise! and 1 copy of Nacho Loco for people to play at home with more family and friends. I left a copy of Likewise! at Elderwood for people there to play whenever they want. Special thanks to Buffalo Games for donating the games to give away.
Just like our blog game night at the Lewiston, NY library, Elderwood was another example of a public place to have a game night in your own area. Just call places like these in your area and ask if they offer community space for meetings, game nights, etc.
The next blog game night will be November 14th at The Good Toy Shop in Orchard Park, NY and one of the games will be Buffalo Game’s new Truth be Told game.
You may also be interested in reading my previous blog post about gaming and Alzheimer’s.
