THANKS FOR HELPING TO MAKE OUR EVENT A SUCCESS!

Many thanks to all who participated, promoted, sponsored, or in any way helped to make our 2011 Bowl For Kids' Sake a success!  

Approximately $28,000  was raised and 320 bowlers participated in this year's event,  (285 last year) held October 14 and 15 at Southway Bowl.

Many local companies and service clubs participated in this year’s event.  Congratulations to Coborn’s Inc. for winning the Coborn's/ING Direct Challenge by bringing in $5,438 in donations as a company!  (85 bowlers/19 teams).  ING DIRECT did a superb job as well bringing in $2,773 in donations.  Coborn’s will retain the Traveling Trophy for another year!  

We encouraged a friendly challenge between some of the other local businesses.  Some other friendly rivalry was created between:

• Financial advisors/ accountants: Miller, Welle, Heiser & Co., Ltd., Kern DeWenter Viere, Ltd., Johnson, Carriar, Kruchten, Anderson, & Associates, and LarsonAllen, LLP.  Miller, Welle, Heiser earned this year’s traveling trophy and bragging rights.
• Printing companies: Synergy Graphics and Rengel Printing.  Synergy Graphics is the champ and will retain the traveling trophy this year.
• Attorney firms:  With a number of local firms participating in the event: Rinke Noonan, Quinlivan Hughes, P.A., Leonard, Street & Deinard, and Gray, Plant, Mooty, we will be presenting a traveling trophy to Quinlivan Hughes for bringing in the most donations.

Hopefully, this friendly rivalry will inspire other groups and businesses to participate in the challenge in the future.

Congratulations to Holly Lee for being the individual overall TOP PLEDGE GETTER with a WHOPPING $ 855.76 in donations.  SUPER JOB, Holly!!!

Holly Lee’s /Coborn’s Team, “The Totally Awesomes” and Doug Sunde’s/Synergy Graphics Team, “Synergy Strikers” both qualify for a $100 gift card to a local restaurant for bringing in a team total of $1,000 or more. ($1,056.76 and $1,044.22 respectively.)

A HUGE thank you to Jon Mott for serving as the emcee on Friday evening and to Nathan Sindt and John Holaway for serving as the “Blues Brothers” emcee(s) on Saturday.  You did a fabulous job and brought extra energy and excitement to the event!  Thanks to our Dancers:  Jessa Swift and Andrew  from St. Cloud Ballroom Dance Club and our event volunteers: Lynn Graner/ING DIRECT, Shareen Stommes/ING DIRECT, Janet Lorenz/RSVP and Dee/RSVP.

Many thanks to our Bowl For Kids’ Sake Planning Committee members for serving on our BFKS Planning Committee and for all the time and energy they invested in recruiting teams:  Holly Lee,  Tyler Abfalter, Shareen Stommes, Doug Sunde,
Tina Rapaway, John Mathews, Garin Strobl, Steve Swarts,
Diane Ohmann, Jeff Gannon, Sandra Theis, Maija Schmelzer,
John Holaway, Casey Niebuhr, and Latricia Swenning.

Thanks to John Holaway and Southway Bowl for making the Karaoke Contest possible.  Congratulations to Jeff Kantos for winning the Karaoke Contest!

Thank you to Central  Minnesota Optimist Club for sponsoring our raffle, and special thanks to our raffle donors:  Best Buy St. Cloud, Westside Liquor, Cash Wise West, St. Cloud Scheels, and Ron Bauer Insurance Agency.

Congratulations to our 2011 Raffle Prize Winners:
1st Prize:  Apple iPad 16GB Wi3G   Winner: Nate Fetterley
2nd Prize: Wheelbarrow full of Craft Beers  Winner: Jackie Lee
3rd Prize:  BMX Bike   Winner: Mike Dehler  
4th Prize:  Scheels Gift Card   Winner: Joy Doke
5th Prize:  Huffy Boys/Mens Bicycle choice of 16", 20", or 24"  Winner: Anthony Oliva
6th Prize:  Huffy Girls/Womens Bicycle choice of 16", 20", or 24"  Winner: Kevin Johnson

Funds received from this event are used to match the children in our program with a caring and carefully trained volunteer, who becomes their mentor, friend, and role-model.  Thank you for making a difference in the lives of the children of central Minnesota who need our help.