By now it should come at no surprise that we've closed our game library. The cafe, which pays the rent for our library space, is now open 9am-9pm and offering to-go orders only including board games. It only took a few hours yesterday for such a dramatic change.

This will be a trying time for our small nonprofit, which depends greatly upon another small business, Spielbound Board Game Cafe, to keep our games available to the public.

Our weekly group meetings of Spielmasons, Stay Sharp, and our staff have moved to virtual meetings. We still can get access to our library for upcoming events and for cataloging/repairing, but it will be greatly restricted.

We will still be here on the other end of this pandemic and we will be fundraising again as part of Omaha Gives! in May as we highlight the many events planned for the summer and beyond. Our volunteers who helped create Unlock Midtown 2020 are also excited for you to experience that in a more comfortable future.

Thank you for your support and we wish you all a healthy time hopefully at home playing some board games.

Kaleb Michaud, PhD
Director and Co-Founder
Spielbound, Inc

Alzheimer’s Disease has been on the rise since the year 2000, affecting over 5 million people in the United States alone. It is the #6 leading cause of death in our country. Stay Sharp promotes the social and cognitive benefits of game play throughout the lifespan, especially as people get older. Research shows that playing board games and participating in other mentally stimulating activities as we get older helps reduce the risk of dementia (including Alzheimer’s Disease) in older adults.¹

This past October, 10 Stay Sharp committee members committed to raising $2000 for the Alzheimer’s Association by participating in the Walk to End Alzheimer’s. This annual event honors those living with the disease, as well as those who have been lost and their caretakers and families.

The originally scheduled date for the event was cancelled due to bad weather, so we had our own impromptu walk in the Midtown Crossing area near Spielbound, through Dewey and Leavenworth Parks, ending at Vis Major Brewing.

2019 has been an active and FUN year for Stay Sharp, and there’s still more to go!

Five years ago on September 2, 2014, we opened our doors and game library to the public for the first time. We had intended to open on September 1, but that was a Monday (we were closed on Mondays then) AND Labor Day (we were closed on major holidays then, too). With this background, we then let everyone who pledged on our spring 2014 Kickstarter as a 1-MONTH MEMBER to have their membership last from September 2 through October 31 since October would technically be our first full month of being open. Clearly a technicality, but an important point: we would not exist without the tremendous support of so many backers and volunteers.

Five years later this point remains true even though much has changed from our first days. We are now open almost every day of the year with consistent hours (9am open, 11pm or 1am close). Our library has over 2500 games catalogued – around 300 new games donated every year! And the building itself is very different – a new roof, new booths and tables, and a new gorgeous mural. But the biggest change was having Spielbound no longer run the café, something our board of directors were happy to do after having to meet monthly for a few years in our early days as we obtained 501(c)(3) legal status.

This split was difficult, and it took a couple years to fully understand how two companies could best work together for the same mission yet be independent. Spielbound Board Game Cafe, LLC runs the commercial café and has a separate website and ownership, while Spielbound, Inc owns the game library and directs all of the nonprofit programs. As we were the first organization of our kind dedicated to the benefits of board game play to apply and obtain charity status, the IRS wanted to ensure that the first organization like this did not rely upon the same business model of existing for-profit businesses.

And 5 years later, here we are, with 5 important, interconnected, yet distinct, programs (and hashtags):

1. Education #learnthroughplay
2. Spielmasons #spielmasons
3. Everybody Plays #everybodyplays
4. Stay Sharp #staysharp
5. Library #gamelibrary

Each has grown and developed through the help of donations and a ton of volunteers, of which we are constantly welcoming more to join our teams. In Education, we have several teachers who have developed lesson plans using games in our library and provide teachers with games to use in their classrooms. Spielmasons have published several games and are hosting their 2nd-annual Protospiel Omaha 2019 convention September 20-22. Everybody Plays continues to get volunteers to lead daily game demos in our library and teach games to the public at other community events. Stay Sharp has become incredibly active in the past year with an infusion of talent around occupational therapy and game modification for increasing access to playing games by those who are older or with a variety of limitations. And last, but not least, our Library is the foundation for all that we do with monthly cataloging/repair events, an on-line database, and archives in what is likely the largest playable game library in the country.

So in 5 years MUCH has changed – our hours, spaces, people, and organizations. But possibly the best example of how we have improved our community comes with the change in our mission’s purpose from “Spielbound strives to educate…” to “Spielbound educates, engages, and creates community through board games.” Our first 5 years has been us finding our footing in trying to make a positive difference in Omaha and beyond. I’m so very excited about our next 5 years! Thank you for your help, and if you haven’t already, please join us and let’s grow our community that is truly making a difference for people of all ages – Play on!

This summer we will be hosting a three-day board game camp for middle school students (June 26 – June 28).

Spielbound Board Game Essentials Day Camp

From June 26-28, Spielbound will be hosting a three-day board game camp for middle school students. Board games can be an instrumental tool to grow and encourage skills in spatial reasoning, math, critical thinking, group work and cooperation. Throughout the days, students will have an opportunity to learn games from multiple genres with the help of Spielbound staff and volunteers. The games selected for the camp will give students a comprehensive understanding of the skills and fun to be gained through collaboration and play. The final day will end with a session where parents and Spielbound volunteers will learn games from the students in the camp.

Lunch will be provided each day, send any dietary restrictions or accessibility requests to greg [at] spielbound.org and we will work to accommodate them in advance.