Bowling for the kids’ sake
Seven teams from local businesses went bowling on Thursday afternoon to benefit Big Brothers Big Sisters of Siloam Springs.
The inaugural Bowl for Kids’ Sake Siloam Springs, held at Community Bowl, raised more than $4,000 for the local program, according to Tiffany Hansen, Siloam Springs program manager. Teams from Cherokee Casino, Arvest Bank, Crye-Leike Realty, Generations Bank, LaZ-Boy, Siloam Springs Women’s Center and TRS Healthcare participated in the event.
“(People) bring their teams in to have a fun day off work and a teambuilding experience, and raise money for Big Brothers Big Sisters,” Hansen said.
Sarah Van Vleck, development director for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Northwest Arkansas, said the nonprofit has been hosting bowling events on the I-49 corridor for a number of years. The events not only offer a fun way to raise money, but also allow the organization to share its mission and find new mentors. All money
raised at the Siloam Springs event will stay in Siloam Springs, she said.
Big Brothers Big Sisters of Siloam Springs is just in its third year and has seen
tremendous growth, Hansen said. Currently, the organization is supporting 55 matches between mentors and youth.
Locally there is a sitebased mentoring program where bigs meet their littles at either Southside Elementary School or the Intermediate School
where they have lunch together and do activities. There is also a community program where a big individual, couple or family meets with a mentee child to do activities outside of school once or twice a month on an evening or weekend.
“We’ve actually doubled
our numbers from year one to year two, and we’re in year three, so it’s been pretty exciting to see the growth,” she said. “This is an extension of that growth, obviously when you grow it has to be supported so we are excited about this event because it’s showing our community
is involving themselves and supporting the growth of our organization.”
She hopes to see Bowl for Kid’s Sake become an annual event in Siloam Springs. The Siloam Springs chapter of the organization has also had a couple of overall sponsors
who have invested seed money to help it become fiscally independent, Hansen said. Both DaySpring Cards and Simmons Foods have been big contributors, she said.
For more information about Big Brothers Big Sisters of Siloam Springs, go to bbbsnwa.org.