Rotary Club creates board game with unique county flavor.

The cover of the boxes that contain the new board game Leelanopoly.

Without raiding the Community Chest, collecting any rent, or landing in jail, local Rotarians are already creating a buzz with the new board game Leelanopoly.

Modeled after Monopoly – the best-selling commercial board game in the world – Leelanopoly was introduced to Leelanau County two weeks ago by the Suttons Bay-Leelanau County Rotary Club. After the first week of sales, Rotarians alone sold 55 sets of Leelanopoly. The game is also being sold at dozens of commercial outlets in the county, meaning the club may be well on its way to selling all 1,000 copies that were ordered.

“Via the grapevine, I’m hearing good things out there,” Rotarian Jim Brye of Suttons Bay told his fellow club members at their weekly meeting on Aug. 23. He then outlined marketing efforts aimed at stimulating sales of the game, which has a distinctly Leelanau flavor.

ROTARY CLUB members Jim Brye (left)
and John Bull hope sales of Leelanopoly
will generate real dollars to help
support local projects.

Brye is being credited with developing the idea for Leelanopoly and energizing Rotarians to get involved in the sales effort.

John Bull, the current Rotary president, said a challenge was put forth to members in early 2006 to develop new fundraising ideas so the club could further aid community projects it’s involved with, such as an ongoing literacy initiative.

“We batted some ideas around, Jim came up with Leelanopoly, and he’s been in charge ever since,” Bull said.

Brye deflected the credit by saying that a previous version of Leelanopoly was created 20 years ago, adding that a sales team that recruited county merchants and the Rotarians themselves is responsible for turning the idea into reality. Brye and Bull also saluted graphic artist Mollie Moody for her involvement.

Moody, the wife of Rotarian Jerry Moody and daughter of member Bob Maynard, produced the artwork on the board and cover that bear the names of 38 businesses and 34 individuals – all Leelanau-based.

Because of copyright infringement concerns, Leelanopoly has some differences from Monopoly though the concept remains the same: to create wealth through the buying, renting and trading of properties. The winner is the player who dominates the market by forcing other player to go bankrupt.

Just like Monopoly, Leelanopoly has green houses and red hotels. The houses represent customers at a business, and when a player owns all the all the businesses of a color group, “customers” may be added. “Bankruptcy” can be declared on a business only after all the customers have been sold to the bank.

Instead of squares on the board for Jail, Community Chest and Chance, there’s “Speeding: Go to Court,” “Cherry” and “Fate” stops. Landing on the Fate square can be positive – such as getting a card that says ”bank error in your favor, collect $200 – or negative, like the card that states ”pay hospital $100.” The Cherry cards are especially unique in that they contain the names of sponsors from the county while describing the penalty or reward.

The tokens aren’t quite like those used in Monopoly. Instead of miniature irons, race cards or top hats, Leelanopoly tokens are wooden objects that look more like chess pieces.

The game was manufactured by a Farmington Hills company, Pride Distributors. Brye said Rotary had to fund production costs “up front,” and is recouping its expenses through the support of local merchants and the sale of the games.

Mary Coste of Omena and Chris Kropp of Cedar headed up the sales efforts to gain merchant support for both the squares, and “premium” placement on the cover of the box. In addition, Leelanopoly was supported by families and couples who donated money to have their names included on the box.

The only complication was that Rotarians weren’t able to start selling games in May as originally planned.

“We weren’t speaking the same language as the game producer, which delayed things a bit and that was too bad because we wanted to take advantage of the summer selling-season,” Brye said. Still, he’s pleased with the early results and said that with Christmas less than four months away, he’s hopeful sales efforts will stay strong. Brye also admitted to be a bit nervous going into the project.

“Rotary is not known as a club to sell things to people face to face, but our members have stepped up and I’m thrilled with the reaction and response of the public,” he said. “It’s a great game for families, for kids, for people to play when they come up to their cottages and we hope people give it a try.”

Leelanopoly sells for $31.79 (including tax), and in addition to being available at locations throughout the county and from individual Rotarians, orders can be placed through the Rotary Club’s hotline at (231) 357-0761.

For more information on Leelanopoly, contact Brye – who owns the Radio Shack store in Suttons Bay – at 271-2755.

The club also offers two major annual fundraisers: an spaghetti dinner in the fall, and pancake breakfast in the spring.