Sherri Kopel Haight

Sherri Kopel Haight sorts through game pieces brought to a game night July 25, 2014, at Shari's Restaurant in Moscow, Idaho.

(AP)

MOSCOW, Idaho — Sherri Kopel Haight likes her games.

While most people think of computers or consoles when they hear the word "gamer," for Haight, video games don't really offer the chance to interact with others the way board games do.

That's something she really appreciates.

About 10 years ago she was going through a tough time — her health was failing and her husband had just died from cancer.

Having run a nonprofit organization in the area for several years, Haight described herself as having previously been an athletic workaholic. However, after she developed fibromyalgia, she eventually found herself unable to work.

"It was a nasty, downhill struggle," she said. "I had lost my ability to work. I had lost my ability to do a lot of the socializing I wanted to do. I just I felt kind of useless."

At the time her doctor suggested she try playing online

as a means to stay more engaged.

She had a better idea.

"I could play (video) games in my living room with people, but to me that would just be half the fun," she said. "To me, half the fun is meeting so many new people and participating in the community."

Growing up in Florida, she always enjoyed board games, she said, but had trouble finding other kids who shared her passion. It wasn't until she went to the University of Alabama that she met some kindred spirits. It was there that she learned how

It was an experience that translated well when she went looking for others who shared her passion on the Palouse.

"There's so much ebb and flow with the population here (because of the universities). People come, stay a while, and then they go, and that can be really intimidating," she said. "It's a way to kind of make someone feel comfortable in your area and share your interests in a low-stress environment."

In 2006, trying to find something to keep her active, she started to look for a local gaming group. When she didn't find any, she decided to create her own.

"When I sold my old business, I traded off a lot of the stuff I had," she said. "I bartered off some of the merchandise that we used to sell for a big stack of board games. At the time I didn't know what half of them were."

Armed with an arsenal of games, she put up signs around the community and contacted local papers to have it added to their calendars — a weekly meeting for the Palouse Board Gamers.

"And then I waited to see if anyone showed up. And here we are a few years later," she said.

Eight years after it first began, the weekly attendance has grown enough they now meet on Fridays in the back room of Shari's Restaurant on Warbonnet Drive in Moscow. Attendance differs from week to week, sometimes just a few people, sometimes 20 to 30.

The atmosphere is very informal, she said. People show up, a few with a handful of games, and they'll divide into groups and usually play several different games on any given night.

Munchkins, Settlers of Cataan, Puerto Rico and Cards Against Humanity are all favorites with the group, though there are many others, and even some homemade games as well.

Haight, now remarried and having just moved back to the Palouse recently after being away for a few years, is no longer the head of the group. But she rarely misses a session.

And as pleasing as it is to get to sit down with friends to play a game or two, it's not hard to see she's far more pleased by the friendships the group has come to foster over the years.

"A lot of people here meet other gamer friends. They'll meet up and do things outside of official meetings, play other games or do things with people who share their other interests," she said. "Actually there's even been a couple of marriages."