Reminiscing on years of playing bridge throughout his life, Bellevue’s Bill Flora is aiming to build his own community of senior bridge players this May.

Flora, 91, moved to Evergreen Court Retirement Homes in Bellevue to be closer to his son and his family. His goal is to create a class to teach the game of bridge to his fellow seniors to rekindle love for the classic card game.

“There is not too much people 65 and over can do in their retirement,” Flora said. “It is too bad there has been less interest in bridge recently than there used to be. I am hoping to bring that back.”

After coming up with the idea to start a bridge class, he found the book “A Fun Way to Serious Bridge” by cartoonist and bridge teacher Harry Lampert. Using the book, Flora hoped to start teaching the game.

To help teach the game, he needed more books. Publisher Simon and Schuster agreed to donate several copies of the book to Flora to provide access for anyone who wanted to join the group and learn bridge.

“I was very fortunate. I got on the telephone and got to talk to the man in charge of donations. He said, ‘I think we are going to be able to help you,’” Flora said. “He called back a week later and said yes they are going to put a dozen books in the mail.”

Evergreen Court has offered Flora the use the their meeting room to host the lessons. Now, Flora plays two or three times a week with the other residents and is preparing to start the lessons on Wednesday, May 1.

Flora said the group is open to anyone 65-years-old or older in the city of Bellevue. Each meeting is planned to run from 9:30 a.m. to 11 a.m. every Wednesday. The first month will focus on lessons from the book, he said. The classes will be free to everyone, Flora said, as the purpose of the class is just to spread the game of bridge.

More information on Evergreen Court is available at www.myevergreencourt.com or at 425-455-4333.