Big Brothers Big Sisters of Southwest Louisiana is asking local residents who have some spare time to knock down some pins while raising money for local at-risk youth at their annual Bowl For Kids’ Sake on Saturday, March 2.

Development Director for Big Brothers Big Sisters Chrisann Surrena said that the event, which has been held annually for more than 25 years, is a great one for those with a competitive spirit.

“The day is split into 30-minute sessions, with 48 teams able to play per session. We have a lot of industries with multiple teams, families and other groups that create competitions against each other. It’s just a fun, fun day,” she said.

Surrena said that last year’s event raised about $150,000, a feat the organization hopes to beat this year in order to fund its programs.

“We want to just shoot for the moon and raise as much money as we can for these kids so we can continue to offer our programs.”

“We have a community- based program in which a child between the ages of 5 and 12 years old is matched with an adult who can take them to parks, the movies, the library or wherever and spend anywhere between two to four hours with them a month.”

“We also have site- based programs, such as the lunch buddy program where an adult is matched with a child in elementary school and goes to see them over their lunch hour and gets a chance to talk to, read and play with them,” she said.

We also have a reading readiness program where an adult is matched with a child whose reading scores are below average for their grade level and that person works with them and tries to enhance their reading and writing abilities,” she said.

(American Press Archives)

Brad Pucektt