IT HAPPENS IN A BOWLING ALLEY

BY BOB JOHNSON

There are 7.9 million people in America with intellectual or developmental disabilities. Many are destined to lead sheltered, unfulfilling lives.

But in areas where organizations offering targeted services exist, the outcomes can be much brighter. In New Mexico’s largest city, Albuquerque, such services are provided by a non-profit known simply as ARCA.

ARCA was founded in 1957 by four families that had children with developmental disabilities and wanted their kids to have the same opportunities as others. Creating such opportunities is the culture of ARCA.

The organization provides life-long services, from foster care for newborns through senior life. ARCA has the only licensed specialized foster care program in New Mexico. It works with local employers to find jobs that will work for both the employer and the individual, and provides job coaches to help with the process.

“There’s a medical manufacturing facility here in town that employs eight or nine folks from ARCA,” says Michele Cody, who recently retired as executive director of the ARCA Foundation. “One of them had an allergic reaction to a material he was in contact with, so he worked with a job coach to write a letter of resignation. The company wouldn’t accept it; they said it was up to them to find a spot for him because he was too valuable. Those are the kind of stories we love to hear.”

Groups from the ARCA community bowl in short-season programs at Tenpins and More in the Albuquerque suburb of Rio Rancho each fall. One Monday 16 years ago, a local businessman named Bob Scanlon was bowling with Tenpins and More proprietor Steve Mackie when a couple of ARCA people came in.

“Bob had just sold his share of a business and was looking for a charity to support,” recalls Mackie. “The idea of a bowl-a-thon came from that conversation.”

It would not be Scanlon’s only encounter with ARCA. He has leased a couple acres of land to the organization for $1 per year, and on that land ARCA volunteers maintain a poinsettia garden. In New Mexico, poinsettias are nearly as important to Christmas celebrations as tamales and midnight Mass.

With Mackie’s promise of support and generous discounts for bowling and food, Scanlon took his idea to Cody, whose purview included public relations, marketing and fundraising.

“Bob told me about bowling with Steve and being so impressed with the people from ARCA, and said it would be fun to do a bowl-a-thon,” says Cody. “We had never done event-based fundraising, but I was certainly willing to listen. He told me that if three criteria were met, he would underwrite all the costs. First, it had to be fun. Second, it had to increase community awareness for ARCA. And third, if it raised a little money, great — but that was the least important criterion.”

Next, Mackie met with Cody and the discussion centered around what she hoped the outcomes of such an event would be.

“He just celebrated us in a way I’ve never seen anybody else do,” Cody recalls.

It’s a compliment Mackie just shrugs off.

“These are salt-of-the-earth people,” he says. “When they say they’ll be at the bowl at a certain time, they get here early. They never complain. I like seeing Special Olympics people employed in restaurants around here. They’re just good people.”

The first ARCA fundraiser was a success, raising $45,000. The second was even more so, bringing in $75,000. Each year since, except for the COVID years when the event could not be held, the bowl-a-thon generated more than six figures.

Held annually on the first Saturday in June, the event consists of a one-game session for those with severe disabilities, followed by a pair of two-game sessions. More than a thousand people — participants, parents, caretakers, sponsors — pass through the 24-lane center in a span of five and a half hours.

“A thousand people is a lot of people,” Cody notes. “They come in wheelchairs, on crutches, some are non-verbal, some have behavioral challenges. There are some people who I can guarantee put more effort into just getting there than I put in the whole day.”

There’s even an annual challenge match, dubbed “Mayors on Strike for ARCA,” involving the mayors of Rio Rancho and other New Mexico cities.

Cody says she always prepared a detailed agenda for the bowl-a-thon, “but five minutes into the agenda, it was out the window and we just had to deal with it. Steve not only can deal with it; he welcomes it. He’s not concerned with whether someone makes an error in judgment or act. He’s focused on whether that person is being given the opportunity to have a really good day. Not many people can do that. He opens the doors and says, ‘Let’s make it a good day.’ And it always is.”

That goes not only for the ARCA bowlers, but also the people who come to bowl with them.

“Every year, I’d see someone walk into the center who looked so uncomfortable,” Cody says. “They didn’t know what to expect. They had some fear. Then they’d get on a team — each team always has a person receiving services on it — and within a few frames you’d see everyone high-5ing, cheering and having fun. When that happens, the fear is mitigated, and it’s replaced by joy. When you replace fear, it doesn’t come back.”

Then another magical thing would happen.

“Those same people would call me and ask me to have the same person on their team the next year,” Cody says.

That desire worked both ways. Right after the holidays, Cody says she would begin receiving daily inquiries about the bowl-a-thon from the ARCA community.

“They wanted to make sure it was going to be held again,” she says. “They wanted to know if they could bowl with the same people. Some wanted to know if they could bowl with a mayor again. Not a day went by that someone wouldn’t ask me something about the bowl-a-thon.”

While Mackie and his family provide the venue for the event, he characteristically deflects credit for its success.

“It’s a conglomeration of people,” he says.

How successful has it been? In 13 bowl-a-thons, Cody says $1.4 million has been raised for ARCA.

“But remember,” she quickly adds, “the money was the third most important criterion. The event has also been a tremendous success in providing fun for the ARCA community and getting the word out about ARCA programs.”

What Mackie will say about the ARCA effort is this: “It’s probably the most successful fundraiser for a 24-lane center on planet Earth.”

And he points to the faith he shares with his wife, PWBA and USBC Hall of Famer Dana Miller-Mackie, for informing his willingness to get involved with charitable activities.

“When I became a born-again Christian, I learned about the principle of tithing,” he says. “The bowl-a-thon is about more than benevolence. It’s a wonderful experience. I’m getting goosebumps just talking about it. It’s joyous. Everyone has a good time. It’s almost heaven-like in the bowling center, so I’m really happy to be part of it. And I know God blesses our efforts.”

Cody, who hopes to remain active with the ARCA fundraiser in her retirement years, says she has great respect and admiration for the Mackies.

“I adore them not only for what they have made possible for ARCA and the people, but what they do for every person who is privileged to stand in their influence,” she says.

“I don’t have words to describe what Steve and Dana do. It is magical. It is spiritual. It is ethereal. It’s all those things where wonderful stuff happens, and you don’t know how it happens. It’s their hearts, their souls, their wisdom.

“And it happens in a bowling alley.”