STEPPING UP TO FILL A NEED

(Editor’s Note: November is BVL Bowling Month in America. To learn more about the organization, visit bvl.org.)

BY BOB JOHNSON

Successful fundraising events require dedicated people, and through most of its history, the Bowlers to Veterans Link was supported primarily by local women’s bowling associations which adopted BVL as their official charity.

But according to Dan Simiril, who owns Foxfire Lanes in Kannapolis, North Carolina, the local BVL fundraiser was dropped in 1987 for reasons lost to history. Then came the 75th anniversary of BVL in 2017, and Simiril thought the time was right for a rebirth. He says when the local USBC association showed no interest in getting involved, “We said, ‘Okay, we’ll do it ourselves.’”

Figuring out a way to make something work was nothing new to the Simiril family, which had purchased the center in 1986 when the town’s primary employer, towel and bed sheet-maker Cannon Mills, was beginning to cut shifts.

“The company changed hands a few times and finally went out of business, and we were afraid we might go out of business with them,” Simiril recalls. “But we didn’t.”

Adapting to the “new normal” in the town, the family created a menu of unique leagues, some with sponsors, as well as a youth program that awards scholarships. They found a way to create their own niche to not only survive but thrive.

And when Simiril decides to get involved with a project, fellow proprietors say, he doesn’t go halfway.

“A long time ago, one of my bowlers on the local women’s board had gone to see a concert by [long-time BVL singing group] Recreation,” Simiril says. “She told me about how they not only would perform, but also sit with the vets before the show and then take them to the concert room. That’s good stuff. And now BVL is making those VR headsets available to vets. To me, you can’t get better than that.”

BVL is partnering with MyndVR, a leading provider of virtual reality-based, digital therapeutic experiences, to provide VR glasses as part of an accelerating technological shift in health care for America’s veterans.

Simiril says he felt getting his league bowlers involved in promoting the BVL fundraiser at Foxfire Lanes would reap the greatest benefits.

“I, myself, do not go lane to lane,” Simiril stresses. “If I were to do it, the bowlers would say, ‘Dan asked me to join a league, he asks me to buy his food, he asks me to buy his drinks and here he comes again with his hand out.’ So, I get a few volunteers from the leagues to do it.”

The annual fundraiser takes place over two weeks in early February, right before Valentine’s Day. During the first week, the volunteers go lane to lane asking bowlers to bring a nice item — not something from the Dollar Store, Simiril says — that they’d be willing to purchase $5 or $10 in raffle tickets to win. The next week, tables are set up on the center’s concourse and raffle tickets are sold. When a person’s ticket number is drawn, they can choose any gift on the tables.

A concurrent raffle is held for a complete ball, bag and shoes outfit. Classic Products donates any ball on the market, another company provides the shoes, and Simiril sweetens the pot with a spare ball, free grips and drilling, along with 20 free games of bowling.

There’s also a raffle in which non-league bowlers may participate, as well as a 50:50 raffle.

How successful have the fundraising efforts been?

“We raised about $3,000 the first year and have gone up by about a thousand dollars each year since,” Simiril says. “Some of the leagues get really competitive about the prizes that are donated.”

According to BVL, Foxfire Lanes’ total donation since 2017 amounts to $46,606.81.

Simiril says that this year he hopes to be able to secure some VR glasses to donate to the W.G. (Bill) Hefner Salisbury Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, about 25 minutes away.

“I want to be able to take the volunteers with me so they can see the faces of the vets when they put on the glasses,” Simiril says. “The smiles and reactions they’ll see that day will make them even better salespeople for us the next time they go lane to lane.”