The Guyana Association of Scrabble Players (GASP) is on a mission to ensure that Guyana is represented at the World Scrabble Championships in Johor Bahru, Malaysia later this month.
Guyana is expected to be represented by national champion Abigail McDonald.
Mc Donald qualified to be Guyana’s representative in Malaysia after unseating Fred Collins off the top spot to become national scrabble champion at the championships held in May.
McDonald won the best of five finals by three games to two.
The champion took the first two games and Collins came back to win the next two to force the fifth and final game which McDonald eventually won by 100 spreads.
Funding has always been an issue with sport in Guyana and with scrabble being a low profile sport it is much harder to acquire capital.
However, members of the association have been actively approaching corporate society.
So far Scotia Bank, Courts and Guyoil are on a long list of sponsors and prize donors for the associations’ fund raising raffle in October which goes towards the travel expenses for McDonald’s trip to Malaysia.
GASP member Moen Gafoor says he is ecstatic about the fund-raising event and the reaction from business persons regarding Guyana’s representation at the World Scrabble Championships.
“We are really looking for the support from everyone out there including businesses to get on board and so far we’ve seen tremendous effort either through prize donations or cash donations.
The raffle is attractive and has nice prizes so we want the public to give their full support.”
Aside from planning for the fund raiser in October, Gafoor mentioned the Entry Level Scrabble Competition today. The competition is open to any person not currently a member of GASP.
Additionally, students who had attended GASP’s Summer Scrabble Workshop over the past two months are welcome to take part in the competition.
The competition entry fee is $500 and will be held at the Georgetown Cricket Club. It commences at 10am.