A fifth annual Alzheimer's benefit books its tables in Shoreview for September 23

On Wednesday, September 23, 2026, the Shoreview Community Center in Minnesota is booked for Mahjong with a purpose. A notice on the Sloperama bulletin board announces a fifth annual tournament there, held for the benefit of everyone affected by Alzheimer's.

The notice was posted on Thursday, December 4, 2025, by Tarri Levine of the TC Metro & Suburban Mah Jongg Club, more than nine months ahead of the date. It is brief. Beyond the name, the cause, the date and the place, it sends readers to a social media page for current information.

What the notice leaves out matters to anyone planning to play. It gives no entry fee, no start time and no word on which card will be played. Players should confirm all three with the organizer rather than assume them.

“5th Annual Mah Jongg Tournament Benefiting All those affected by Alzheimer's.”Tarri Levine's notice on the Sloperama bulletin board

Who is behind it

The TC Metro & Suburban Mah Jongg Club is a Meetup group based in Minneapolis. Its Meetup page names Tarri as super organizer, working with several co-organizers, and describes a club that welcomes every variant of the game and plays most days of the week. For its American games, players bring a current National Mah Jongg League card. Members are asked to RSVP so that tables can be reserved.

The board where the notice appeared is the Find Mah-Jongg Players, Teachers, & Tournaments page on Sloperama, the site run by Tom Sloper. Readers email their notices in, and the site reviews them before they go up. The page also says plainly that its owner does not verify the listings, which is one more reason to check the details with the organizer directly.

A city room, and a fifth year

The venue is a public building. The Shoreview Community Center, at 4580 Victoria St N, is run by the City of Shoreview, and its site lists rooms for meetings, seminars, banquets and weddings alongside a gymnasium, a fitness center and indoor waterparks. Its main number is 651-490-4700.

The word in the notice that stands out is the ordinal. A fifth annual tournament means its organizers have brought it back four times before, which is the hard part of any benefit.

The pairing of Mahjong and memory has been on Twin Cities minds. Writing in TC Jewfolk on June 16, 2026, Sheryl Stillman made the case that the game supports memory and social connection, pointing to an early observational study from Hong Kong in 2004, and quoted physician Paul Bendheim, who said, "The combination of cognitively stimulating hours of play with the socialization aspect is enormous." The same article lists Meetup, Facebook, synagogues, churches and community centers among the places Twin Cities players find a game.

As of this writing, the public notice is the only published detail. Anyone hoping to play, or to give, should reach the organizers through the club's Meetup page or the social page linked from the notice, and confirm the fee, the start time and the card well before September 23. Order of the Tile is not affiliated with this tournament or its organizers and has no role in registration.

Prim's view

I keep a soft spot for the tournaments that come back. Anyone can hold one benefit. The fifth takes someone who posts the date in December for a game the following September, and then does all the quiet work in between.

Alzheimer's fundraising and American Mahjong keep finding each other, and I do not think the reason is sentimental. A tournament asks four people to sit together for hours, keeping track of what has been thrown, reading one another's faces, laughing at the same table. That is exactly the shape of what the disease takes away, and playing for it is a way of saying we know what that is worth.

I like the room, too. A community center is the sensible end of the tournament world: affordable, repeatable, and a place the neighbors already know how to find. If you are anywhere near Shoreview on September 23, ask the organizers for a seat.