COHOES STRONG
Community members show support for fire victims
COHOES, N.Y. » People from around the Capital Region with ties to Cohoes dug into their pockets Saturday at the Cohoes Bowling Arena to show their support for the victims of the Nov. 30 fire in the city.
Bowling pins fell and rock music played in the background as the arena hosted a seven-hour-long fundraiser for the fire victims. The fundraiser will continue Sunday from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. in the same location, 309 Ontario Street.
The idea for the event sprang from discussions between the bowling arena’s owner Dan Walsh and his brother-in-law Steve Pesta, the owner of Awards by Walsh’s, another busi- ness in the city a few doors away.
“We’re both in Cohoes and we saw the fire and thought we’d do something for those who were affected,” Pesta said. “We printed 760 shirts with the words ‘Cohoes Strong’ on the front that we’re selling for $20. If we sell out we’ll make a nice amount of money we can give them.”
Along with the purchase of a shirt, the buyer gets two free games of bowling and free shoe rentals. By 3:30 p.m. Saturday, all 14 lanes in the arena were filled with energetic bowlers wearing the white T-shirts.
“My dad has owned this business for 54 years,” Walsh said. “Tomorrow we’ll do it again and we’ll also have the two lead singers from the band Skeeter Creek, plus a DJ for more rock and bowl.”
"We printed 760 shirts with the words ‘Cohoes Strong’ on the front that we’re selling for $20. If we sell out we’ll make a nice amount of money we can give them." — Steve Pesta, the owner of Awards by Walsh’s
To add to the total donation amount, there also is a Chinese auction and 5050 raffles.
As Pesta manned the Tshirt table, supporter after supporter showed up to purchase shirts and discuss how the victims were doing. James Stott and his son Arthur from Guilderland purchased four.
“We’re customers of Walsh’s, plus I have a buddy who owns five of the houses that surround the ones that came down,” James Stott said.
Pesta said he had $14,000 in donations in hand before the fundraiser started from emailing every customer on his customer lists. Their names, which appear on the back of the T-shirts, are a directory of area businesses. They also include two city councilmen, Cohoes Mayor Shawn Morse and U. S. Rep. Paul Tonko D-Amsterdam.
As he picked up his shirt Joe Peterson, another city businessman, said he bowls at the Cohoes Bowling Arena three times a week and his daughter bowls there also.
“I know three of the families, three people I went to school with,” he said. “Their goal is to get $25,000 in donations and just from looking around, I think they’ll make it.”
Jessica Pesta, a business owner from Green Island and Steve Pesta’s daughter, stopped in to pick up a shirt with her fiancé. Her business appears on the back of the shirt.
“My favorite sushi place on Remsen Street, Yuan Sushi, was affected by the fire and as a business owner I can only imagine how that is,” Jessica Pesta said. “I grew up in here, bowled my first 300 game here, was bowler of the week here. This [fundraiser] is a good way to have a positive [experience]. It keeps people’s spirits up after such a bad event.”
Alyssa Apisa of Latham is an officer in the Cohoes American Legion Ladies Auxiliary. She took a break from bowling a few frames to explain what brought her to the fundraiser.
“I have a family friend, who I’ve known since I was born, who lost everything in the fire,” she said. “And my nana and grandfather grew up here, so of course I wanted to be here.”
As the pins continued to go down with a muted clatter and the Beatles’ “I Want To Hold Your Hand” circulated through the room, three bowlers with Pesta’s Cohoes Strong T-shirts stopped for a moment for a break.
“I have friends of friends who were burnt out,” said Larry Scott. “We live here, so of course we would come. We wanted to come out to support our community.”