FIRST Vice-President Humbert Davis says National Association of Domino Bodies (NADB) is revolutionising the way the games are played by leveraging dominoes as a tool for social change.

Davis explained that by engaging people from diverse backgrounds, NADB is creating what he describes as a vibrant community that promotes the sport’s growth and development.

Through its outreach initiatives he said NADB has attracted a diverse range of members who share a passion for dominoes, fostering a sense of community and driving the sport’s progress.

In partnership with National Council for Senior Citizens (NCSC), NADB is now expanding its reach to senior citizens with a Regional Senior Citizen Domino Tournament.

This event aims to promote social interaction, cognitive stimulation, and friendly competition among seniors, celebrating the joy of dominoes and fostering a sense of community and camaraderie.

By promoting camaraderie and social interaction at the parish level, Davis said this initiative seeks to improve the lives of senior citizens, showcasing the power of games to bring people together and create positive change.

“Playing dominoes boosts memory and engages the brain and mind, facilitating information encoding, storage, and retrieval,” he said. “This mental exercise involves visualising dots, lines, shapes, and patterns, promoting holistic cognitive development.

“Regular play fosters synaptic connections between neurons in older adults, augmenting neural networks and cognitive function. This activity is crucial in warding off mental health issues like dementia, Alzheimer’s disease.

“Additionally, dominoes fosters social interaction, reducing feelings of loneliness and potentially preventing depression, thus supporting healthy and active ageing initiatives. The focus of domino is on both the physiological and cognitive aspects.”

Each parish will assemble teams of six individuals (inclusive of two reserves), comprising both men and women, to compete within their respective regions for the prestigious First Place Champion trophy.

The tournament starts on July 4, with competitions in St Ann, Trelawny, St James, Westmoreland, and Hanover.

The tournament continues on July 11 in St Andrew, St Catherine, Clarendon, Mandeville, and St Elizabeth, and concludes on July 18 in Kingston, St Thomas, Portland, and St Mary.

Davis said the purposes of this activity are also to use recreation in games to promote healthy, active ageing across the lifespan; enable senior citizens to engage in social and recreational activities; and promote relaxation.

“We just want to enhance their memory, imagination and strategic thinking,” he said. “We also want to motivate seniors to integrate mental health exercises into their daily regimen as well as to promote intergenerational interaction and transfer of logic thinking skills, teamwork, and problem solving.”