mibsterwon

I have several of those medals !!! Thanks for posting it, I forgot I had it And there were velvet like marble bags with marbles in them.

I was at the premiere of King of the Hill in NYC and in Philadelphia. We met the three child actors, Jesse Bradford, Cameron Boyd and a then unknown Katherine Heigel. We shot marbles with them, got their autographs and taught them how to shoot. Most of the shooting was done by the "magic of the camera" for the actual movie. We each did get a piece of the broken glass marble. It was a great expierence and we all got posters and books and all kinds of memorabelia from the movie. I have a few copies of it on VHS, but I don't believe it ever came out on DVD. I have a few photos of the NYC event on my facebook page. Katherine Heigl certainly has a become a star......she was 14 at the time.....I wonder if she remembers shooting marbles at the premiere??

Great News.....I just found out that we have a sponsor for the Reading and Berks County kids to play in the National Marbles Tournament !!! The Reading Marbles Tournament is 89 years strong and will now be rolling into our 90th next year !!! Thank you to all that inquired about our tournament !!

It costs $775 to send a person to the National Marbles Tournament. It would be great to have that amount times 4 or 5.....the more we have the more kids we can send. That amount includes room and meals for the tournament week for the child and their parent. I hate to have a player win and say congratulations.....you can play in the Nationals if can come up with the money. I am hoping to have the sponsorship in place for the local tournament in two weeks. We have our fingers crossed. Thanks !!

Actually running the tournament itself costs nothing......I have never been a paid employee. What we are looking for is sponsorship money to send our champions to the National Marbles Tournament. Two years ago we lost our sponsor of 80+ years due to the economic downturn. But we are still looking for a sponsor !!

Yes, Steph, there have been quite a few families that have had multiple National Marbles Champions. My family with 4, Stamms with 3, Nees with two. Ryabiks with two. Many, many families have had many compete but I am only naming the ones with National Champions. Ricci's have one NMC, Amber and her father was a semi-finalist. Miller's have quite a few, and I think they are all cousins. As for sponsorship, we did get the funding for two kids to go this year. One is paying thier own expenses and the other is being funded by a former National Marbles Champion and a noteable collector. Last year, at the Amana show, money was collected for my marbles program and it sent one child to the nationals. I sincerely thank those collectors that donated last year. I used to go to each school to conduct a tournament.....50 schools in total. This year without sponsorship I only went to the Middle Schools....and had quite a good turnout. I will not let marbles die in my community.....the Reading Marbles Tourament is the oldest continually running marbles tournament in the country.....this year being the 88th Annual Reading Marbles Tournament......quite an accomplishment. And it's not going to end.....the interest is there, we just need funding. Anyway, feel free to ask me any questions about our program. I can always talk marbles, lol.

I think I heard my name mentioned We do use Jabo's every year in our marbles programs. We give out approximately 1600 bags to the participants, although with the loss of our 80+ year sponsor, we are giving out a bit less. When the kids play with marbles that are colorful and interesting, it keeps their attention longer and they want to play. When they are given the bags, the study the coloring in each marble carefully. The give them names....gecko, pumpkin or just make one up, then they trade with others. It's a lot of fun to watch. For many years I drove to Jabo and picked up about 1000 lbs. at a time. It was quite the site getting all those boxes in a Chrysler Mini Van !! It was definately a low rider and it was interesting going up and down the mountains going back to PA, lol. It's much easier to teach the children with the Jabo's......it's easy to tell them to shoot at the red and green one, as opposed to the third one from the left. As stated above we always shoot with an agate or flint, we shoot at the Jabo's as targets....except in the Nationals where they are all solid blue. We (Whitney and I) do use a Jabo shooter occasionally....like when we shot in the Carribbean Sea...we don't want to lose an agate !! Or when we shot in Bermuda, some places in London and at the Eiffel Tower !! We left Jabo's everywhere we travelled.....they are all over the world !! And we put quite a few in the Carribbean over the years, lol. Everytime we see wet cement being poured, we sometimes ask if we can throw marbles into in.....the guys usually think we're crazy, but they let us do it !! Sadly, I'm running a bit low on Jabo's, but I'm sure I'll find some more soon !! I can talk forever on marbles and my interesting, crazy and silly stories....I'd better stop now !! Debra NMC-73

The current 2009 National Marbles Champion Whitney Lapic and her mother (me) Debra Stanley-Lapic, the 1973 National Marbles Champion will be at the show to demonstrate the game of Ringer. Please stop by and meet us and get some marble shooting tips!! We'd love to meet everyone from the board. I'm not sure where we will be set up with our marbles rings but we'll be meeting, greeting and demonstrating on Saturday and Sunday !! Hope to see you all, Debra and Whitney

Sure, I'd love some help on posting photos. Or can I just send them to someone and have them post for me? I'm still at the National Marbles Tournament...........trying to relax after an exciting week. I'd love everyone to see the other end of marbles............the playing end and how dedicated these mibsters are. Thanks, Debra

Yes, she did it!!! We are the first mother/child National Marbles Champions in the tournaments 86 year history with a 36 year difference, lol. We are on cloud nine right now. I will post some links later. I am trying to post some photos of the tournament but they are so huge that I am having problems. Debra NMC-73 and Whitney NMC-09

Thanks for the good wishes !! We have been here practicing since June 14th. We have endured 50 degree temps, 30 mph winds and pouring rain, all not good for outdoor marbles play. We were just waiting for the hail and locusts !!! The tournament is exhausting for both players and parents.

I am presently at the National Marbles Touranment in Wildwood, NJ. My daughter is currently in first place. I think that is a pretty good "live source", LOL. I'll try to answer any questions about the tournament you may have ! Here's a copy of the article that was in today's Reading Eagle http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=145342 6/24/2009 Last Update: 6/24/2009 12:22:00 AM Shillington girl moves into first place in National Marbles Tournament Reading Eagle The possibility of a Berks County marbles champ dynasty is closer than ever. Whitney A. Lapic, 13, is in first place at the 86th annual National Marbles Tournament in Wildwood, N.J. Whitney of Shillington moved from second to first place Tuesday, with an overall record of 22 -2. Whitney is the Berks County girls marbles champion. Her mother is Debra Stanley-Lapic, who won the 1973 girls championship when she was 14 and now organizes the local tournaments. After the tournament's second day, Shakira Ortiz of Reading moved up to 11th place with a 10-14 record. Shakira, 12, is the Reading girls champion. Shane Hoover of Exeter Township was in 22nd place with a 7-27 record. Shane, 8, is the Berks County boys champion. Preliminaries continue today. The top eight girls and boys will play in the semifinals Thursday. The mibsters compete for national honors, college scholarships and other prizes.

Thanks Janice and Al, I appreciate the birthday wishes !! Debra NMC-73

Oh my, my first post!!! Thanks so much for the Birthday Wishes.....I had a wonderful day!!! Debra 1973 National Marbles Champion