A Hempstead town program runs three rungs, not one class

The Town of Hempstead, New York teaches American Mahjong as a ladder rather than a single class. Its Parks and Recreation department lists three levels for fall 2026, Beginner, Advanced Beginner and Intermediate, at two town sites, and the town's Mah-Jongg page limits each class to 20 adults. Online registration for all three opens on Thursday, September 10, 2026, at 10:00 a.m., and stays open "until class is filled."

The Dispatch first noted the program on August 12, and the details below are the town's listing as of August 30. The classes are built on the National Mah Jongg League card, and the town asks students to buy the 2026 card only from the League itself, at NationalMahJonggLeague.org. Anyone with access to a set is asked to bring it to class.

Three rungs

The first rung, Mah Jongg (Beginner), introduces the tiles and the basic moves. It meets on Tuesdays at Speno Park in East Meadow from October 6 through December 8, with no class on November 3, for nine weekly sessions. There are two sections, 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and 12:45 to 2:45 p.m. The town lists the fee at $108, or $54 for seniors and veterans.

Mah Jongg (Advanced Beginner) names the beginner class as its prerequisite and concentrates on better defensive play. It meets on Mondays at Speno Park, 10:00 a.m. to noon, from October 5 through December 7, nine weekly sessions at the same $108, or $54.

Mah Jongg (Intermediate) also requires the beginner class. Per the town's page, it opens with a short review of beginner material and then moves on to defensive plays and winning strategies. It runs longest, ten weekly sessions on Wednesdays from September 30 through December 16, 1:00 to 3:00 p.m., at the Merrick Golf Course Clubhouse in Merrick, and costs $120, or $60 for seniors and veterans. On all three levels, the town notes, the reduced rate also applies to the physically challenged and to volunteer firefighters.

A ladder the town has kept up

The three levels are not new. An archived copy of the same page, saved by the Internet Archive in June 2025, shows the town offering Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced Beginner classes for its summer 2025 session, each limited to 20 adults and each running twelve weekly sessions at $144, or $72 for seniors and veterans. Registration for that session also opened on a single morning, Thursday, May 15, 2025, at 9:00 a.m.

One thing has changed. In 2025 the page said the instructor would help students get the year's card. For fall 2026 it sends them straight to the source: the National Mah Jongg League sells its 2026 card through its own website and by mail.

How to get a seat

Registration is online through the town's recreation catalog, linked from the Mah-Jongg page, beginning Thursday, September 10, at 10:00 a.m. New players start with the beginner class, since both of the other levels list it as a prerequisite. Questions go to the Town of Hempstead at 516-489-5000, the number printed on the town's page.

Prim's view

A great many towns run one beginner class and stop there, and the players scatter afterward. Hempstead has built a ladder with a named prerequisite on every rung above the first, and that is how a class becomes a habit. By my arithmetic, every rung costs the same per meeting, $12 a session, or $6 for seniors and veterans, and it worked out the same in the summer of 2025. That kind of steadiness is a quiet kindness to people on fixed incomes.

The half price line for seniors and veterans, stretched to cover volunteer firefighters and the physically challenged, is the part any program could copy at once. My advice to anyone near East Meadow or Merrick: put Thursday, September 10, at 10:00 a.m. on the calendar, not the October start date. A class of twenty is not a big room, and the morning registration opens is the whole event.