Joining us at WRCO is Greg Kinney, who is preparing for another spectacular event, Riverdale Communities Education Foundation 8-pin tap bowling tournament this very Sunday.
Greg, it's that time of year again.
Yep, it is.
It's one of our fundraisers, one of our three major fundraisers that we run during the year and usually in the winter we try and have a bowling fundraiser and so that is coming up this Sunday.
Have you had a lot of turnout yet or are you looking for a lot more
bowlers?
We could use a lot more bowlers.
It's unfortunately falling during spring break.
And so we're losing some people to that.
And so, yeah, we're looking for quite a few on each shift.
Both shifts are 11 and 130.
So we could we could use some help.
Definitely.
This is one of the big fundraisers.
They only do some others during the year, but you're counting on this for some giving back to the community in the school in May, aren't you?
Yep.
Yeah, everything we make at these fundraisers goes right back into the school district.
And this past year, we gave back $18,944 to the teachers, three different categories.
And so our grand total is $150,480 for the years we've been in business.
This year, we have already gave out $3,200 in a new category that we started last year.
The Enhancement Awards and 45 students went to a ski trip and a lot of them had never skied before, so that one went really well.
And then the sixth grade students will be going to a brewer game, which is also combined with a math day program that the brewer sponsor.
So yeah, we're off and running and people are getting benefits.
from us and so now we just got to keep raising money
this thing it's not for the i mean you can be a really good bowler but it's also for the novices or maybe people that only bowl once a year great
yeah they don't have to i mean it's more for just fun and enjoyment um and if you're not a bowler and you want to just come and buy tickets you know raffle bucket raffle tickets are a bit on silent auction items um we welcome you to come and do that as well but uh
It is a very important part of our fundraising activities.
When you're given away almost $20,000, we have to generate a lot of money somehow.
Our committee is very dedicated to it.
So we just hope people will come out and help us out a little bit and have some fun during the day and we can keep doing what we're doing.
Can you tell me a little bit about the door prizes, anything that sticks out in terms of things that have been donated to you so far, Greg?
Well, on the side of an auction, we have a fire ring that has been donated.
We have a cooker that has been donated.
We have two quilts that have been donated by two different people.
We have brewer tickets that are
Six rows off of the field that will be up for bid.
They're really good seats So and then the bucket raffles We have gifts from the shoebox Mallard tickets Just a lot of different variety of things on the bucket raffle you just you buy $20 worth of tickets and you can put it in whatever bucket you like and
And you have a chance to win that then at the end of the day.
But we have a lot of stuff that's been donated.
We just need some people to come and be a part of our day.
And that's the other thing.
You don't necessarily have to bowl, but just stop by and maybe make a bid or drop off a donation,
right?
Yeah.
If they want to just give us a donation and they didn't want to buy raffle tickets or anything like that, we're more than happy to take those as well.
So every little bit counts are one of our
original founding members, Mary Stanick said every dollar we have that we make is one dollar more than we had before we started today.
So that's kind of our motto that we just keep doing it and hopefully we get some support and we can make some money to keep giving back to the kids at Riverdale.
We haven't talked to you since, but how did the Carnival go for you in January?
It went really well.
We had a busy day.
Kids were, a lot of kids showed up.
We had over 200 kids come through the door that bought the wristbands for the bounce houses.
We sold a pile of food over 20, I think 24 pizzas we went through that day, a ton of cotton candy and snow cones.
So it was really well attended.
We had a good day that day and a lot of kids went home tired, but
that's kind of our motto for that event.
You have something at least in three seasons because you have that, you have the spring event, you have the golf event in the summer too, don't you?
Yeah, we have the golf events always the first Saturday in August and people are already talking about that so that one there fills up pretty quickly but we could just really use some help here with the bowling one if people are looking to
give up a couple hours during the day you know it usually takes about two hours to go through the one shift and and then you know bid on something or there are door prices that everybody will get a door price through a drawing as well so you're going to go home with something one way or the other so it's strictly an eight-pin tap and so you know the best scores
At the end of the day, we put them on our Facebook page and we let people know who did very well.
But there's no competition for prize money or anything like that.
It's just certainly to come and have some fun.
So families could come or kids or whoever,
right?
Absolutely.
It's $15 to bowl.
Sometimes we get it if there's a group of young kids that
And we have a pair of lanes that are available.
We'll set up the bumpers for them and let them have a little bit more fun that way.
But it kind of depends on our crowd.
So is pre-registration pretty important right now, Greg?
It is.
It's very important.
If they could call me and let me know what their, you know, either the 11 o'clock or the 130 shift and how many people they have coming in their group, that helps.
us organize and be ready for them and put them on, you know, a pair of lanes that they could all bowl together.
So if people can pre-register, that really helps us out in a big way.
Is there a sign up sheet at Tabasco Bowl and Banquet as well?
There is.
You can call there too, but, you know, sometimes they're really busy and they may not get to the phone right away.
So really the best avenue is to call here at my number is 608-537-2359.
And if nobody answers here, just leave a message and we'll get back to you as quickly as we can.
Walk-ins will be accepted though, I'm sure, on Sunday.
Absolutely.
Yep, walk-ins will be accepted that day as well.
Great, Greg.
Well, we hope it's another sparkling event for you and people come out and support Riverdale again on Sunday.
Thanks for joining us.
Yeah, well, we really appreciate everything WRCO does for us.
You guys have been tremendous supporters for a long, long time.
and you're always at our awards banquet in the spring and we very much appreciate that so yeah we we couldn't do it without you guys that's for sure.
Well thank you it goes both ways we appreciate everything Riverdale does for us too so thank you.
Thank you Bill.
Yeah Riverdale Communities Education Foundation 8-pin tap bowling tournament Sunday again shifts at 11 and 130.
