Meeples in your neighborhood: Mac Grassick

Mac Grassick has lived in Regina most of his life, and he’s currently the general manager at Boston Pizza North Albert (BPs), the homebase of ChewsDay Challenge.

Mac fell in love with Dungeons & Dragons when he was young but credits Mike Becker, Barry Ellis, and Matt Robertson for his plunge to the more advanced board game world. Mac has combined his passions and now regularly leads D&D campaigns at ChewsDay Challenge – the game night he played a key role in establishing.

He’s been obsessed with playing games, from the moment he stepped foot in Traps & Readers Bookshop, now Comic Readers, to look for t-shirts, figures, games, and literally everything else game-related.

Several years ago, Mac was chatting with Matt Robertson and Dana Tillusz, one of the managers of Comic Readers.

“There was a conversation that went something like, ‘Wouldn’t it be nice if we had a place to hold larger board games events?’. I was the kitchen manager at BPs at the time, and I and a handful of my staff had just had a board game night in the team room of the restaurant,” Mac recalls.

“I told Dana and Matt about this and said we hardly use that space during the week, and I was sure that if I spoke to my general manager, he would let us use the space,” Mac says. “After a meeting with Dana and Matt, we decided to launch what Matt dubbed ‘ChewsDay Challenge’. Matt had the website, Dana had the local game store, and I was the connection to the restaurant and the space for the event. It all went from there.”

Today, BPs provides not only the venue and prize support for our weekly game night, but also provides the midnight meal sponsorship for Play with Your Food’s (PwYF) 24-hour event.

“ChewsDay Challenge has been a source of immense pride for me,” Mac says. “Of course it’s great for the business I’m responsible for but, as an avid gamer, it’s beyond amazing to see what this event has evolved into over all these years. Once PwYF took over ChewsDay, and because of the incredible charitable work they do, I couldn’t help but get more involved”.

Mac is quick to thank and credit the people who helped create ChewsDay Challenge. “Without Matt and Dana, the event would never have happened,” he says. “Although Dana and Comic Readers have chosen to no longer be involved with ChewsDay, I’m still very thankful for all their contributions in years past” So are we, Mac – so are we!

This year, Mac is part of a PwYF team, My Kinda Meeple. He and his son, Ryland, joined the team this year because of their experience at last year’s 24-hour event.

“We both had such an enjoyable time,” he says. “Ryland left after a few hours, and I came back, but I faded out after a very robust tournament of Tumblin’ Dice around 2-3 in the morning!”

For Mac, the best part about playing board games “is sitting down with a good group of people and enjoying an hour or two of gaming. Regardless of the outcome of the game, you’ve already won,” he says, crediting the thinking to his friend Barry Ellis.

Now that Mac is on a PwYF team, his involvement with Regina’s board gaming scene is contributing to an even bigger win for the community, as all the money raised through his and all the other PwYF teams goes to Carmichael Outreach. “Carmichael does such magnificent work within the community, so it’s just a blessing to be a small part of the great work they do,” Mac says.

Mac knows that none of the work ChewsDay Challenge and PwYF do would be possible without the amazing volunteers to make things happen.

“I want to thank all the people that volunteer their time,” he says. “It doesn’t just happen –
– there’s quite a lot going on behind the scenes to have these events run as well as they do. During the ChewsDay announcements, the ambassador always thanks BPs for providing the space.

“But we all, as attendees, should be thanking the ambassador, the learn-to-play teacher, and all the other volunteers for taking time out of their lives (and game time) to welcome us all and make sure we all have a great night. Without this, these events just would not exist.

“Thank you so much to everyone in this community,” he adds. “To steal a quote from Matt, ‘Life is short – play games!’.”

ChewsDay Challenge offers anyone interested in games the opportunity to come in, sit down, meet some great people, and play a game or two. If you have a good time and keep coming back, take the opportunity to learn more about PwYF, and join or create a team and help take the fun and turn it into an opportunity to make a positive impact in our community.

As Mac puts it, “The games are great, but the people are what brings me back. Take that first step and go to ChewsDay Challenge, you will not regret it!”

See you on Tuesday at ChewsDay!