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megram - 55JunOttawa - Index

Bridging the Way
to Retirement
Combining business and pleasure
By Iris Winston
Active Retirement
Bridge trumped retirement for
Colin Brodie in 2006.After a 38year
career in sales, sales management
and training for the high-tech
sector, he retired in 2004.
“I enjoyed my work, so I just kept
going,” he says.“And I still get asked to
help out sometimes.”
One of his plans for retirement
was to spend more time on his longtime
hobby of bridge.He succeeded in
meeting that goal in spades, when he
purchased his favourite bridge club.
Before he and his wife, Claire,
acquired The Bridge Connection in
Ottawa in August 2006, he was “just a
player,” says the 66-year-old retiree
turned business owner. “I’ve always
had an interest in the game. In fact,
I’ve been playing since I was a kid, filling
in as a fourth in my parents’ home
or watching them play.”
He kept playing as an adult, but
his work and family matters — he and
Claire had three children in 30 months
— meant that even bridge games at
the social level took a back seat for a
while. In fact, it was not until his
daughters and son finished high
school that a more concerted
approach to the game was in the
cards.
“When the kids left for college, I
had a vacuum in my life and started
playing more seriously,” says Colin.
When the previous owners of The
Bridge Connection put the club up for
sale, indicating that they were looking
for a buyer who would maintain the
ambience they had established for
their clients, Colin stepped forward.
“I bought the club because I
thought that this was an opportunity
to do something independently and
add a little value to the community,”he
says. “As our mission statement says,
our aim is the development and promotion
of bridge for players of all levels
in a friendly, flexible and supportive
club environment.”
He adds that he particularly
wanted the club, which celebrates its
fifth anniversary in June, to be comfortable
for seniors, who form the
majority of the membership. He estimates
that well over 90 per cent of
the people who play at The Bridge
Connection and the Prince of Wales,
the second club run out of Colin’s
facility, are seniors.
“It has been written about
bridge that people who keep their
minds active live longer and healthier
lives,” says Colin, who maintains
The Bridge Connection’s website
(www.thebridgeconnection.ca) himself.“Certainly
in terms of anecdotal
evidence, I see a lot of seniors here
in their 80s who are very sharp.”
“People that come from other
areas to Ottawa — or anywhere in
unit 192 of the American Contract
Bridge League — find the competition
level very healthy,” he adds.
“Bridge in the Ottawa/Gatineau area
is very competitive.”
June 2008 • 20 • Fifty-Five Plus Magazine
(Unit 192 of the ACBL covers
Eastern Ontario and the Outaouais.
It includes Almonte, Arnprior,
Brockville, Cornwall, Deep River,
Gatineau, Kemptville, Kingston,
Ottawa, Pembroke, Perth, Petawawa
and Smiths Falls. Details of club contacts
and games are available at
www.unit192.ca.)
The Bridge Connection, which is
one of the unit’s largest clubs, operates
almost every day of the year and
can have as many as 36 tables of players
during tournaments. The staff —
currently numbering 10 and expanding
— will give lessons on-site to any
group of three or more and will offer
classes off-site to groups of 12.
“The success of this club is partly
because we have a very good staff and
partly because the Prince of Wales
Club (owned by Dave Willis, who
writes a regular bridge column for the
Ottawa Citizen) is our tenant and that
helps to pay the rent,” says Colin, who
recently returned to the city after leading
a group of 32 players on a bridge
cruise in the Eastern Caribbean. He
will lead his second Caribbean bridge
cruise in February 2009.
“The other interesting thing about
this club is that the people who play
here like to contribute,”adds Colin.“For
instance, the collages on the walls are
by Richard Robillard. If people buy any
of them, he donates the money to the
food bank.While they are here,we have
the chance to enjoy them.”