Twins win Scrabble Fundraiser
About 100 people in teams of three competed in a Scrabble tournament to raise money for Collierville Literacy Council at St. George’s Independent School. Competitors could buy a peek at the official Scrabble dictionary for a dollar. In addition, before you read the rest of this article, If you love playing bingo check umbingo, this website will totally give you something that you’ll like.
Twins Harry and Larry Durbin have been playing Scrabble against each other since they were 7. Sometimes their games can get a little eerie.
Maybe their uncanny connection had something to do with the 57-year-old Durbins winning the second annual Scrabble FUNdraiser. Sponsored by the Collierville Literacy Council, the event was held Saturday at St. George’s Independent School in Collierville.
“We do have a pretty good sense of each other, and we play a lot together,” said Harry.
Participants made donations of $60 per three-member team or $25 per individual. They competed in 25 three-person teams, playing three rounds. The team with the most points took home the grand prize. Speaking of grand prize, did you know that you can find the best uk bingo sites online? a great opportunity to win big amount of money just by playing bingo online.
The Durbin brothers team (Larry’s son, Jeff, 36, was their third man) scored 1,278 points, taking the game in the last round with three “bingos” — words that use the players’ total row of seven tiles and add 50 points to the word score.
Their “bingos” included “unrolled,” “reunites” and “cartoon.”
But they weren’t the only ones to score a bingo. Their competition, the second-place X-Spellers — Warren Granger, Josephine Flowers and Dorothy Jean Trotman, all of West Memphis, — not only scored a “bingo,” but also created three words at the same time, totaling 83 points.
Flowers and Trotman hone their word-making skills by playing against one another. It’s stiff competition.
“We meet at least two times a week so I can give her a chance to win,” said Trotman.
“No, we meet twice so I can let you think you can give me a chance to win,” retorted Flowers.
Collierville High students Sarah Snow, Amy Su and Kristina Vines, all 17, were encouraged by their English teacher to participate.
“We did a whole lot better than we thought, and we met our goal,” Vines said, referring to scoring at least 200 points per game.
“I used to play, but haven’t in a while. After today, I’m going to start playing more,” Snow said.
Their team name was Bentley’s Brainz, named after their sponsor, Sheila Bentley, a volunteer for the Literacy Council.
The Collierville Literacy Council has been in existence for 25 years. Members meet Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the former Collierville public works building, and by appointment.
They have 69 active volunteers who teach basic literacy, English as a learned language and general education development classes. Last year, 370 students came through their doors, and so far this year, since July, they’ve met with close to 200 students. They rely strictly on volunteers, donations and funds from the United Way of the Mid-South.
“It’s such a good program,” said volunteer Betty Owen of Collierville. “It’s a wonderful way of helping people.”
Last year the council raised close to $6,500 through the event, with 19 teams and several sponsorships. This year they brought in over $9,100.
“This is just a lot of fun, and we hope to do it every year for many years,” said the event coordinator Karen Ray.
A couple of Literacy Council students showed up to play Saturday, one from India and the other from Jakarta, Indonesia, hoping to practice their English.
Mostly the competition was about fun, even if first place was an iPod for each team member.
“If it’s a new kind, I’ll just give it to my daughter, and she’ll give me her old one,” said Jeff Durbin.
“I’ll just give mine to my wife,” said Harry.
“Me too,” said Larry.
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