There’s a new event coming to the Modesto area this November that promises to bring excitement and entertainment to the whole community, while at the same time supporting the Boys and Girls Clubs of Stanislaus County. 

The Board Game Extravaganza on November 20 will showcase a variety of vendors from the Modesto-Turlock area, offering everything from regular board games and tabletop role–playing games to toys and collectables.

Board games being sold in a raffle will receive special attention, such as Trekking the World, Trekking the National Parks, and Apocalypse Road, so vendors are encouraged to donate games of their choice. Participants will have an opportunity to purchase raffle tickets at the event, the proceeds of which will go directly towards the Boys and Girls Clubs of Stanislaus County. 

This event is being sponsored by the Star Trek fan club, a 501(c)3 nonprofit charity organization, to raise money to support underprivileged youth involvement in the arts.

“The Star Trek Fan Club helps support many different programs in the Modesto area, things like the Modesto High to Modesto Junior College Arts Scholarship and the Yes Performing Arts Group for kids at the Gallo Arts Center as well as the Boys and Girls Clubs of Stanislaus County,” explained member Rob Van Tuinen (senior, Communication Studies).

Van Tuinen hopes that the Board Game Extravaganza will be able to raise enough money to make this an annual event.

Christine Mabry, representing Blackrowan Games, a gamestore attending this event as a vendor, believes that they will continue to attend the Board Game Extravaganza annually if it is held.

“What we would like to see is all of the local game stores attending and participating. We believe that the success of one of us leads to the success of all of us because we’re promoting gaming and each of the stores is very different in what they bring to the table,” Mabry said.

Blackrowan Games is a retail game store located in Tracy and often represents specific companies at these types of gaming conventions. At the Board Game Extravaganza, however, they are representing themselves and giving themselves the opportunity to promote their store since they have only recently celebrated their second anniversary and lack the public presence of some of the more established game stores in the Central Valley. 

For Blackrowan Games, their main goal in attending is “connecting people in the Valley…we’re really a gathering place to bring family friends and community together.”  

“[Blackrowan Games] anticipates that a lot of the attendees [at the Board Game Extravaganza] might be new to boardgaming, so we’re expecting quite a few beginner and family gamers, which is right up our alley,” said Mabry. 

In addition to having games for sale, Blackrowan Games plans on having a demo table with staff on hand to help show these beginners how to play some of the games they will be selling. 

Mabry also “would love to see it grow into more of a traditional kind of convention where people get together and play board games, maybe even have some competitive sessions going on for different things, but mostly opportunities for people to learn new games.”

Mabry believes the Extravaganza might also, in later years, will showcase game designers from the Valley, the Bay Area, and Northern California.

“That would be very special and unique for our area,” said Mabry. 

It is an area that Blackrowan Games has explored as they sell several games created by game designers in the Central Valley. 

For Sanchez Michaels, an independent game designer who will also be attending, “events like the Board Game Extravaganza allow me to fulfill what I believe is my businesses’ most important purpose: to share something fun with the world, and to have fun with people while doing it.” 

Michaels is the creator of “Gosh Darn Bubbles!,” a tabletop treasure hunting card game and the founder of Sandwich Bag Games, an independent tabletop game publishing label based in San Jose, California. 

As far as the Board Game Extravaganza is concerned, Michaels plans on teaching people how to play Gosh Darn Bubbles!, “the flagship title of Sandwich Bag Games”.

“The game features beautiful illustrations by 12 different artists from around the world, is easy to learn, and is fast to play, making it a fantastic choice for game nights with family or friends,” explained Michaels. 

Michaels is immensely proud of his creation, a project that took about 100 hours of work to complete, and is glad he can represent San Francisco in the board gaming community  

“I was born, raised, and currently live in the San Francisco Bay Area. I’ve watched it go through many changes, and while it is currently best known as the home of Silicon Valley–a global center of technological innovation–it was, and still is, a prolific home to the arts,” said Michaels. 

He is glad to be able to support this event.

“Community-building is key to positive human progress, and it is an honor to be a part of this event’s charitable cause,” said Michaels.

Donations both to specific charities and to the general fund will be accepted by the Event’s hosts, The Star Trek Fan Club.

“The easiest way for anyone to make a donation is through our Facebook page USS Balthasar. In addition to that, we’ll have credit card readers and stuff at the event so you can make any sort of donation that you want,” added Van Tuinen.

For Van Tuinen, this event holds special significance.

“It’s probably about 10 years ago now that I started putting together the idea behind it, but I’ve been interested in what we could do to support arts programs basically since I was in high school and seeing it always on the chopping block,” Van Tuinen said.

“When I was in high school, the thing that every school was talking about was the possibility of cutting arts programs. I never wanted to see that so the way that I thought that I could help that was to make it the mission of our Star Trek Fan Club to raise money specifically for those arts programs,” explained Van Tuinen. 

As far as his passion for board games goes, he remembers fondly his grandparents’ love of Aggravation, a marble-based alternative similar to “Sorry!” 

“When I got back into board gaming big probably three or four years ago, I discovered Dune, the board game based on Frank Herbert’s book. It’s a big game, but that brought me back into the hobby,” Van Tuinen said. “That’s when I discovered other games like Dinosaur Island, which is all about building your own dinosaur theme park, and Western Legends which is about being in the Old West, wrangling cattle, panning for gold. Once I discovered those different styles of games, I was hooked.” 

In the future, he aims to continue working with the Star Trek Fan Club, supporting arts programs throughout the Modesto-Turlock community. He is hoping to land a job in marketing or journalism which will give him the time to remain involved in the Star Trek Fan Club and its work. 

The Board Game Extravaganza will be hosted at the Modesto center Plaza, on November 20 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the Stanislaus Room in Harvest Hall. Masks will be required and vaccines are recommended for the protection of everyone attending.

Event participants will be charged a five dollar entrance fee. For more information and up-to-date event details, visit the Board Game Extravaganza Facebook page. 

If you are interested in further supporting the Star Trek Fan Club and want to get involved, follow them on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/ussbalthasar.

Note: Rob Van Tuinen is a reporter for the Signal.