Mid Hudson Valley Table Tennis Club (MHVTTC)
The MHVTTC in Kingston NY is the only USATT affiliated table tennis club in the Hudson Valley, and is the largest coordinated contingent for the sport in the region. Currently the club meets once per week at the YMCA of Kingston & Ulster County. We are very passionate about table tennis and part of our mission is to further promote this amazing sport within the county and neighboring areas. Club details regarding where and when we meet can be found on the FAQs link on the left. If you have any interest in playing or even watching, please stop on by for a visit. Hope to see you there.
Cheers!
Robert Euvino
The Mid Hudson Valley Table Tennis Club meets every Thursday evening, unless noted otherwise.
5:00 - 9:00pm.
Come when you want, leave when you want!
Advance registration no longer required. Payment details can be found on the navigation link (left hand side) labeled 'Fees', or by clicking here. Please read!
We're proudly hosted by the YMCA of Kingston & Ulster County, located at 507 Broadway, Kingston, NY 12401
(845 338-3810), and we consider it a privilege to have such a wonderful facility at our disposal. Please help us respect this relationship.
Questions? Contact Robert at reuvino@hvc.rr.com
or by phone - 908 420 4085.
'If you don't know the difference between table tennis and ping pong, you've been playing ping pong.'
Happy Traum
5/9/1938 – 7/17/2024
On behalf of myself and the club, we bid a tearful good bye to Happy Traum. There’s little I can say that hasn’t already been said about Happy. Those who knew him well, and those who had only just met him came away with the same impression. Beyond the musician and performer he was known to be…just what an amazing man!
Such a warm and gentle presence. Patient. Soft spoken. Wise but always humble. A teacher who never stopped learning. Friendly doesn’t even begin to cover it, but it could have
been his name just as easily. I befriended Happy long ago, in the gym where we both belonged. Much to my surprise I discovered he and his wife Jane were the force behind the musical instructional videos known as Homespun Tapes. Videos I had discovered in the pages of Keyboard Magazine,
and then eagerly purchased and consumed long before the internet existed. Many years later, and without knowledge that I knew her husband, Jane contacted me in regards to taking table tennis lessons. The rest is, as they say, history. Prior to COVID, they were both steady regulars at our club. I ended up working not only with Jane and Happy, but with their grandchildren as well. Despite table tennis being a focal point, they truly embraced and treated me as family. For that I am so very grateful. Just to put a point on the type of man Happy was, whenever he'd hit a winning shot on the table, rather than gloat he would - how can I describe it - he would give a glance that was just short of an apology. As if he shared in your pain of losing the point he just earned. They say the good die young. And while Happy was 86, a more youthful octogenarian I have yet to meet. It applies here more than ever.
Condolences to the entire Traum family. We cry with you.
Happy, strum in peace my friend.
The Traums, center in photo below.
Bernarr Schaeffer
1/7/1951 – 1/6/2026
Another one lost.
Bernarr Schaeffer vacated this phase as we know it on Tuesday, January 6th. Just hours shy of his 75th birthday. With dignity and on his own terms. He was aware up until his last few hours, and the transition was peaceful while surrounded by those who loved him. Relative newcomers to our club might not be familiar with Bernie, but for many years he was a tenacious, hard-hitting fixture. His eccentric air and curious presence belied the endlessly creative, intellectually driven and gentle soul which defined him. A fiercely independent thinker, he intentionally kept his circles very small - of which I felt privileged to be included - and always lived with intense purpose.
Our paths initially crossed nearly 25 years ago, unsurprisingly through table tennis. In addition to his skills with a paddle and countless hours shared on the table, I was drawn to the quirky nature he embodied. The strange exclamations he’d utter during gameplay, which I was unable to place my finger squarely upon were clearly a foreign language created by and only understood by Bernie himself. I never stopped trying to decipher his code. He hit more nets and edges than any player I had ever encountered. So much so, it could not be discounted as luck. We often joked it was a stylistic choice as opposed to fortune as he’d regularly exclaim “You can’t argue with that kind of precision!”
Due to his introverted nature, Bern wasn’t the easiest character to learn. But efforts to do so were always rewarded disproportionately. Despite the cliché, he was truly one of a kind. A genuine friend. He made my life better...more interesting. For those who didn’t know him, I wish you could have.
Rest easy Bern. We're all right behind you.
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