The annual fundraiser for the local Big Brothers Big Sisters program at the Heartland Youth Centre, Lloyd’s Bowl for Kids, continues to draw support from the local community, so much so that this year, there weren’t enough lanes for all the bowlers who wanted to bowl.
Though numbers are still preliminary, youth centre director Winnie Bissett said she expects the total to come to roughly $15,000, all pledged and raised by people in the community to help the program.
While Bowl for Kids is a fundraiser held in many different communities for their own chapters of Big Brothers Big Sisters, the local money-maker has taken on special meaning for the youth centre.
Long-time contributor and volunteer at the youth centre, Lloyd Smith, managed to raise roughly $75,000 in pledges over the years he took part in the event, prompting the youth centre to rename the event in his honour.
Smith, who died in 2011, never had children but came to feel as if the youth centre’s kids were his own, involving himself in any way he could in order to help them develop, and the youth centre develop programs.
Smith’s presence is felt every year at the Bowl for Kids event, as bowling balls rumble down the lanes, pins clatter, and bowlers groan as the ball rolls down the gutter. Every mutter and every cheer, every effort that goes into a costume, is a reflection of Smith’s joy in the event.
This year’s theme was Western days, and several sheriffs, bandits, and little cowgirls and cowboys were on hand to have some fun. Others opted to not wear costumes, but made up for their lack by cheering on their fellows and congratulating others on their costumes.
The next big fundraiser for the youth centre is the awesome auction, which will see one of Smith’s antique cars, which he bequeathed to former youth centre member Charlie Thurston, be auctioned off to benefit the Stettler and area youth.