Fundraisers
A Sunday of tiles and trades raises more than $2,000 for the library in Peachtree City
The Fayette Mahj Social Club and The Avenue Peachtree City filled an afternoon with social play, a tile trade and raffle prizes, and sent the proceeds to the Friends of the Peachtree City Library.
On Sunday, November 8, a shopping center in Peachtree City, Georgia, gave its afternoon over to mahjong, and the town's library came out ahead. The Fayette Mahj Social Club and The Avenue Peachtree City hosted the event together, with social play, a tile trade, refreshments and raffle prizes.
Nearly 40 people took part, and the afternoon raised more than $2,000 for the Friends of the Peachtree City Library, according to The Citizen, which reported the result on November 12. The Friends support programs at the M.T. Allen Memorial Library. Kelly Lawrence, general manager of The Avenue Peachtree City, told the paper the center was excited to partner with the club.
A club that began this spring
The Fayette Mahj Social Club is young. It held its first gathering on April 19, 2026, when a full room of 44 players came for a training session on the 2026 National Mah Jongg League card, The Citizen reported at the time. The session was led by Beverley Segel, an instructor from the Atlanta area.
Three friends started it: Heather Feinstein, Erin Kagey and Lara Long. Ms. Feinstein told the paper she used to drive to Atlanta to play because nothing like it existed closer to home. She described the group as neither a business nor a nonprofit, and said its events tend to sell out in about 48 hours. From the start, the founders said they hoped to partner with local charities.
They have kept that promise. In August the club helped plan Mahj for Meals with Midwest Food Bank in Fayetteville. The Citizen reported that 156 players took part and donated 1,617 pounds of food. The library afternoon is the club's latest turn at the same idea.
“Our events tend to sell out in about 48 hours.”Heather Feinstein, cofounder, Fayette Mahj Social Club, in The Citizen
Where the money goes
The Friends of the Peachtree City Library is a nonprofit formed in 1973. According to [its own site](http://www.ptclibraryfriends.org/), it raises money to add to the library's budget and pays for author events, summer reading, children's storytime and an art initiative. It also runs a continuing sale of donated books, audio books, films and music at the library.
The Citizen's report adds two recent figures from the Friends: more than 3,100 people attended the library's children's summer programs in 2026, and the group helped relaunch 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten, which encourages families to read to young children before they start school.
OOTT is not affiliated with the Fayette Mahj Social Club, The Avenue Peachtree City or the Friends of the Peachtree City Library, and does not sell mahjong sets.
Prim's view
This is Prim's opinion. A library and a mahjong table have a good deal in common. Both are free to the curious, both reward patience, and both are at their best when a stranger becomes a regular. It seems exactly right that players in Peachtree City spent a Sunday paying the library back.
Prim is also fond of the tile trade. Every player owns a few tiles or racks she no longer reaches for, and a trade lets them go to someone who will. It makes a charity afternoon feel like a gathering of friends rather than a transaction.
If you play in Fayette County, the club posts its events on Facebook and on Instagram, and they fill quickly, so watch closely. If you do not play yet, the library is a fine place to start reading about the game, and the club is a fine place to start playing it.