Big Brothers Big Sisters of Lacombe and District will be celebrating their annual Bowl for Kid’s Sake Fundraiser for the first two weeks of March.
The annual tradition, now in it’s 30th year, is the largest fundraiser for the event and will have local fundraisers at nine locations including eight schools and an adult event at the Lacombe Memorial Centre on March 9th from 6 p.m. until 11 p.m.
The event — which will feature Wii Bowling tournaments — is Lacombe’s most important fundraiser of the year according to Executive Director Crystal Zens.
“Out of our $200,000 budget, we fundraise 70 per cent of it from this event. It is is critical for us to be able to deliver all of our youth programs,” she said.
This year the school events will be on Feb. 28th at Lacombe Upper Elementary; March 1st at Father Lacombe; March 4th at Bentley Elementary; March 6th at Iron Ridge Intermediate Campus; March 7th at Iron Ridge Elementary Campus; March 12th at Terrace Ridge School and March 13th at J.S. McCormick
“It is lots of fun,” Zens said. “The kids get really excited and do really great with their fundraising. This year, for the kids events, Mario Party is our theme — so they are all dressing up as Mario Brothers.”
The March 9th adult event will feature a Great Gatsby theme.
“Boston Pizza will be donating all the food to benefit Big Brothers Big Sisters, as well as a lot of community businesses donating raffle prizes for our auction,” Zens said.
So far, outside of their regular operating budget, the big goal for Big Brothers Big Sisters in Lacombe has been to pay off the $149,000 remaining on their mortgage.
“Our Landlord of the Month is going really well. We have sold out five out of our 12 months. That is steady, but we need to strive to get rid of that mortgage. It is at a stagnant $149,000 which has been hard to pick away at,” she said.
Zens said the community of Lacombe and district continue to be a phenomenal support for the organization.
“No matter what we are watching, they are always willing to step up to help us,” she said. “They are great advocates for us and have supported our recruitment campaign when we painted the town purple back in fall, and also with this event and our festival. There is always enthusiasm to help the kids in our community.”
She added they are currently in need of 25 new adult mentors for kids on their wait list and they are also in need of three more teams for their adult Bowl for Kid’s Sake event.
todd.vaughan@lacombeexpress.com
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