Member Martina & Stacy
Martina McCarthy
My name is Martina McCarthy, and I am the Co-Founder of Mahjong Social Club. I was born and raised in Slovakia, where I earned my master’s degree in Special Education. After marrying my husband, Tim, a Ridgewood native, I moved to New York City and began working as a special education teacher. I spent four years teaching in the city while Tim and I built our life together and started our family. We now have two children, our 22-year-old daughter, Emma, and our 17-year-old son, Tommy.
Although New York became my new home, staying connected to my Slovak roots was always important to me. In 2008, I founded the Slovak Moms Club in New York City to bring together Slovak immigrant mothers living throughout New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. What began as a way to meet other Slovak families grew into a community where we could share our traditions, maintain our culture, and give our children a connection to the place many of us still called home.
That sense of community became even more important to me when our family moved to Ridgewood in 2012. Tim had grown up here and had so many wonderful memories of his childhood, so with family still in the area, Ridgewood felt like a natural place for us to raise our own children. As we settled into town, I began looking for ways to become involved and meet other families. In 2013, I joined the Moms Club at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church, where I helped cook meals for families in need and formed friendships with other women in the community. I also volunteered at my children’s elementary school as an art docent through the TIC TOC program, now known as DBA ARTPOP.
Those experiences introduced me to even more ways to give back locally. Through friends and other community connections, I became involved with the Social Service Association of Ridgewood & Vicinity around 2018. Volunteering was something I wanted to share with my children as well, so I encouraged them to get involved alongside me and see firsthand the importance of helping the people in their own community.
As my children grew older, I was also ready to return to the career I had always loved. In 2019, I went back to special education, first working as a special education assistant teacher at Ridgewood High School.From there, I worked as a permanent special education substitute teacher at Glen School and Godwin Elementary in Midland Park before becoming a head special education teacher at Ridge. Most recently, I transitioned to day-to-day substitute teaching at schools throughout the area, giving me the flexibility to continue doing the work I love while accommodating my evolving schedule. Returning to teaching reminded me how much I enjoyed helping people learn, especially when I could find a way to make something that initially seemed difficult feel approachable.
I never expected that those same teaching skills would eventually lead me to start a business.
About three years ago, a group of friends and I decided to take Mahjong classes through a community school. We quickly fell in love with the game and began getting together once a week to play. Before long, Mahjong became more than something we did for fun. It gave us a reason to get together regularly, challenge ourselves, laugh, and spend time with friends. As we played more often and met new people, other women became curious about the game too. We kept hearing the same questions: “Where did you learn?” and “Can you teach us?”
Those questions stayed in the back of our minds until one car ride changed everything.
Stacy and I were driving into New York City to visit the Christmas markets at Bryant Park when we started talking about all of the women who had been asking us to teach them Mahjong. Somewhere during that conversation, Stacy pointed out the obvious: we were both teachers, we loved Mahjong, and people wanted to learn. Why couldn’t we teach them ourselves?
At first, we laughed at the idea. Stacy and I had talked before about how much fun it would be to start a business together, but we certainly never imagined that by the end of the car ride, the idea no longer seemed so far-fetched. It brought together so many things we already loved—teaching, friendship, community, and connecting people.
That car ride became the beginning of Mahjong Social Club.
Once we decided to give the idea a real chance, our backgrounds as teachers immediately took over. We wanted to figure out the best, easiest, and most fun way to teach it. For about six weeks, we developed different strategies to make the game as simple, hands-on, and approachable as possible for someone who had never played before. We practiced our lessons on friends and family, listened to their feedback, and continued making changes until we had a teaching method we felt confident sharing with others.
When we finally began offering lessons, we had no idea what to expect. To our surprise and excitement, the response from the community was incredible. What started as a small idea between two friends quickly grew as more women signed up for lessons, told their friends, and became part of our Mahjong community.
For me, that community has become the most rewarding part of Mahjong Social Club. We have had the opportunity to meet so many wonderful women of different ages from Ridgewood and the surrounding towns. They often arrive at a lesson not knowing anyone and simply wanting to learn the game. By the end, we see them laughing together, exchanging phone numbers, and making plans to play again. Watching those friendships form has shown us that Mahjong is about much more than learning the rules of a game. It gives people a reason to come together, meet someone new, challenge their minds, and simply enjoy each other’s company.
Stacy and I are incredibly grateful to every person who has supported us along the way—whether they attended one of our group classes, booked a private lesson, recommended us to a friend, or participated in our first tournament, which sold out and became an exciting milestone for our growing business. Every class and event has introduced us to new people and reminded us why we started doing this in the first place.
When I think about the journey that brought me here—from growing up in Slovakia, to teaching special education in New York, raising my family in Ridgewood, volunteering in my community, and eventually returning to the classroom—I realize that teaching and bringing people together have been consistent parts of my life. Mahjong Social Club has unexpectedly given me a way to combine both.
It still amazes me that a simple car ride to the Bryant Park Christmas markets a less than a year ago became the beginning of Stacy and I’s journey into entrepreneurship. What started as two friends joking about teaching their favorite game has grown into something neither of us could have predicted. I am incredibly grateful for everyone who has been part of the journey so far, and I am excited to see where Mahjong Social Club takes us next.
Stacy Strohmenger
Hi, my name is Stacy Strohmenger. I have lived in Ridgewood since 2008. My husband, Steve, and I have three children (Brady 19, Luke 17, and Lexi 14). I work in education, currently with William Paterson University, Saint Elizabeth University, and Bergen Community College.
I really enjoy participating in the Ridgewood community. I volunteer on the board of Social Service Association (SSA) and RHS Boys Soccer Boosters I have also served as membership chair for Ridgewood Moms, a trustee for the Ridgewood Education Foundation, and a board member on GW HSA.
I created Mahjong Social Club with my business partner, Martina McCarthy, in February of this year. We have been playing this amazing game for about two years. As educators, we knew we would enjoy teaching others how to play. However, an added bonus has been meeting many new wonderful people in our community!
