Thank you so much to all of the amazing individuals and companies who raised funds and sponsored Bowl For Kids’ Sake this year. Amazingly, we met our fundraising goal, making it possible for us to continue to serve over 2,400 kids in WNC in the upcoming year!
What a swashbuckling event it was! With teams of pirates from all walks: Peter Pan pirates, peg-legged, eye-patched, hook-handed pirates—mateys and tricorn-adorned captains. Dagger-wielding, gold-hoop hanging pirates. Oh, and thanks to Johnny Depp—there was no shortage of “guy-liner-ed” eyes—or faux dreadlocks.
Bowl For Kids’ Sake is Big Brother’s Big Sisters’ signature event, with hundreds of BFKS fundraisers hosted throughout the nation for affiliates. BBBS of WNC enjoys the perennial support not only of individuals but of local companies and schools—many of which come back year after year to show their support. What is it about BFKS and BBBS that brings them out? We asked a few:
We’ve been bowling in Bowl For Kids Sake for nine years and we’ve had an Americorps member in our school for over nine years and through BBBS for three years now.
This is an amazing event, we have a small group that comes every single year and it’s just a small way that we can show our appreciation for Big Brothers Big Sisters. We have Bigs in our school every day and we see the impact it has on kids lives so we really do believe that this supports that mission.
-Sara Cain, Principal, Ira B. Jones Elementary
It’s not hard to get some realtors competitive. That seems to be a DNA strand that every realtor has. So all we have to do is, say: “Hey, I’m going to raise more money than you and then,: it’s on!” That’s how our team gets involved in raising money, because they know it’s going for a great cause and then we’re able to get our mortgage company involved and other teams in the office involved and just be able to—as a competitive thing as well as the charitable aspect—because we know that it is going to that great cause and the one on one mentoring and the group mentoring and all of the programs that Big Brothers has to offer.
-Matt Tavener, Keller Williams’ The Matt and Molly Team
I was a Big Sister in college and we both understand the power of coaching and mentorship and empowering kids to be more than they might think they could be. We think that if more kids had mentors, then the world would be a better place, so we believe in this 100%.
It’s one thing to be a part of the community and help people achieve the dream of home ownership and it’s another thing to get everybody on the same page for making our community a better place.
-Molly de Mattos, Keller Williams’ The Matt and Molly Team
We Really appreciate the camaraderie of Big Brothers Big Sisters and we are kind of all like a Big Brother of Big Sister in our factory—everybody supports each other and we’re a big family. That’s rule #1: the people come first, and so we can really appreciate that aspect of BBBS.
We brought people from production, shipping, marketing. Everyone’s together and since we’re in different departments throughout the weeks, it’s fun to get together on the weekends.
-Chela Hutchinson, Moog Music
We have lots of students that attend BBBS we have about 30 kids a day that meet with a Big so they are a huge part of our student life. And so this is a way for us to give back to our kids within the community.
We’re a family at Sugarloaf and we brought one team here and plan to being more teams in the future. But all of our staff rallied together to fundraise for this and so this was the whole school spirit type effort to get this event together: we got together to organize our costumes…and now we’re just ready to have as lot of fun.
-Ashley Newcomer, Principal, Upward Elementary
We’ve been involved for nine years, so this is our ninth year bowling. We have a lot of students who have bigs at Upward Elementary. And we’re just thrilled to have them and so this is a way to make that continue.
-Gloria Anderson, Counselor at Upward Elementary and Advisory Council Member, BBBS Henderson County
We’ve been bowling for kids sake for years, ever since I started there in outreach. We discovered that it’s a really great way to pull our team together and do something for somebody else and have a sense of community—so we’ve done it every year for nine years running now.
It’s a great thing for us to do within our own organization, but then we also come out here and start seeing the people that come to the store and see how we are all trying to work together for a more sustainable community.
-Gretchn Schott Cummins, Outreach Coordinator, Hendersonville Community Co-op