ASHEVILLE, N.C. (828newsNOW) — The most ubiquitous examples of a “Meeple” are probably from Monopoly. The top hat, thimble, Scottish terrier and their fellow tokens represent the player’s position on a game board. Players often have their favorites – in the 828newsNOW office, I am the top hat. Dee is the shoe. The small pieces are avatars for gameplay, carrying the weight of their player’s successes and failures inside of their little world.
Board game charity drive Meeples for the Mountains wants to bring board games to families for Christmas. Meeples organizer and board game enthusiast Hannah Bink explained why the idea felt right after Helene.
“Board games are the perfect gift for someone who has just lost everything,” Bink said. “You don’t need electricity, you don’t need batteries, you just need a flat surface and people willing to play games.”
Bink called her friends at Well-Played Board Game Café, a gaming parlor located on Coxe Ave. in downtown Asheville, and asked if they would be willing to help. Well-Played joined the campaign right away.
“It’s got two major roles,” Bink said. “One role is as a collection site. People can go there and donate board games on-site. But the other, bigger role it’s playing is as the storage facility.”
Well-Played is no stranger to board game storage. The café is home to hundreds of games available for patrons to play. With the Meeples campaign, they hope to house a few hundred more.
The Meeples campaign goal is to raise 750 games before Dec. 15, when they will be sent to local charities like BeLoved Asheville and Centro Unido Latino Americano in McDowell county to distribute across Western North Carolina.
“We’re just four days in, and we’re at already four percent of our goal,” Bink said.
Games can be donated directly or purchased from an Amazon wishlist and mailed to Well-Played at:
Meeples for the Mountains
c/o Well Played Board Game Cafe
162 Coxe Ave, #101
Asheville, NC 28801
Seven other gaming shops across W.N.C. have signed up as additional donation sites:
- Curio, 2 Battery Park Ave., Asheville
- The Wyvern’s Tale, 347 Merrimon Ave., Asheville
- Dragon’s Den, 643 Greenway Rd, Suite 0, Boone
- The Deck Box, 3049 Hendersonville Road, Suite 30, Fletcher
- Victory Point Game Store, 2212 Union Rd., Suite 600, Gastonia
- Tolgard Games, 130 Sylva Plaza, Sylva
- Katmandu Games, 192 S Main St., Waynesville
If donators decide to find their own game to contribute to the drive, Bink asks that it be playable for four players or more.
“We really wanted games that could accommodate a full family,” Bink said. “Because a game is not just a gift for a child, it’s a gift for the entire family to come together.”
Bink’s suggestions included Ticket to Ride, which challenges players to build train routes across the United States, and Viticulture, a game about growing prosperous vineyards.
For the record, Bink’s Monopoly Meeple?
“Mine was the race car,” Bink said.
