On a whim last week as a former keen chess player, I decided to support Brooklyn Castle Chess team.
My interest was sparked by a blog post by venture firm Union Square Ventures’ Fred Wilson, which made me smile, due to its willful perversity and playfulness.
Wilson wrote: “You may have heard about the documentary called Brooklyn Castle in which a team of public middle school kids from NYC win the national high school chess championship…. A few days ago, a friend sent me this blog post saying that funding cuts in the NYC public school system are putting the IS 318 chess team at risk. At the end of the post, the Diane Ravitch writes: ‘About a month ago, Eva Moskowitz held a fundraiser for her Success Academy charter school chain and raised $7 million Wouldn’t you think that just one of those hedge fund managers would adopt the chess program at I.S. 318?’”
Wilson added: “Maybe we can take the politics out of this situation. I am not a hedge fund manager but I am a huge fan of Eva and what she is doing with Success Academies. And I am also a fan of IS 318 and what they are doing. There are plenty of ways to support the children in the public school system and one is not at the expense of the other, no matter what Diane thinks. So I have connected the IS 318 chess team with DonorsChoose and we are going to run a campaign to raise the $20k they need to operate this coming year. And the Gotham Gal and I are going to do some sort of match to get this thing going.”
This DonorsChoose campaign went live on Friday. For chess, the community of Brooklyn, and for the reputation of high finance I urge you to back the campaign.