BY DENNIS BERGENDORF
There’s an old saying that what goes around comes around. Bowling World’s Sherry Ailor understands it intimately. The successful 32-lane center in Cookeville, Tennessee, midway between Nashville and Knoxville, practices the philosophy throughout the year.
Bowling World is heavily involved in fundraisers, and the granddaddy of them all is “Rollin’ With the Pros,” a greatly expanded pro-am that brings in six bowling stars and “pairs” them with amateurs from the town of 35,000 and several other cities and states.
The event benefits, in a big way, the Putnam County YMCA Cancer Recovery Program.
“The event gives back to a worthy cause but also provides a great fun time in which you interact with pros, which you don’t get to do every day,” Ailor notes.
This year, the pros were Carolyn Dorin-Ballard, Sean Rash, Stefanie Johnson, Clara Guerrero, Adam Barta and the PBA Player of the Year, EJ Tackett.
The heart of the event is the pro-am, but it’s more than that. The pros lead a four-hour clinic prior to the competition, and there are auctions and raffles in which the goodies are bowling balls, bags, T-shirts, accessories and donated prizes from local businesses.
Barta conducts something called the “Barta Nation Strike Challenge,” in which amateurs pay $10 and then try to get more strikes than he in five shots. The top prize is a $75 certificate for use in the center, plus $50 off the following year’s clinic.
There also was a trick-shot show, and one of the tricks involved Barta throwing a ball over “Bob the Halloween Skeleton,” who was seated in a chair at the arrows.
The cancer recovery program “offers adults affected by cancer a safe, supportive environment to participate in physical and social activities focused on strengthening the whole person, not the disease,” according to the YMCA’s web site. It’s a “free outreach program that provides comprehensive nutrition, exercise and wellness services designed to help maximize quality of life and minimize the side effects that cancer treatments can cause.”
There’s even a women’s group called Go Pink for women who are fighting or have fought breast cancer. In addition to nutrition and exercise, Go Pink provides group discussions “led by a trained facilitator.”
Ailor says the cost for each person enrolled in the recovery program is $1,000. Rollin’ with the Pros raised just over $20,000, meaning 20 more people can be served in the YMCA program.
How did the fundraiser come about?
In 2020, Sherry, husband Bill and others in the Ailor family gutted and remodeled the center’s restaurant. They were planning some sort of grand re-opening celebration, and “we were advised to have pros come in for a pro-am. I decided that we needed to give back to the community.”
The thinking was they should partner with a non-profit, and the YMCA’s cancer program was recommended.
“When we found out it takes $1,000 per person to go through the program, I thought that we could help a little,” Ailor says.
Over time, thanks to “Rollin’ With the Pros,” a little turned into a lot.
The initial step involved amassing the merch to be raffled off.
“We had met several vendors, people that were selling everything and anything that keeps our doors open,” Ailor explains. “We got several people to donate equipment, bowling balls, stuff like that — things we knew people in the pro-am would be interested in.”
Coupled with a 50-50 drawing, that first event raised $3,000. And it has grown substantially ever since. In 2022, the funds raised were just over $7,000, and by 2024 they had climbed to $13,900. Though that fell short of the goal of $15,000, “we were ecstatic.”
“Rollin’ With the Pros” isn’t the only fundraiser at Bowling World. There’s also “Harrington for Hope,” which helps burn victims, and “Frames for Freedom,” which raises money for veterans’ art programs. The center also hosts a Kiwanis Club tournament, as well as a three-weekend event for a special-needs group. Military personnel and first responders bowl at reduced rates.
“Some people who have lived in Cookeville for quite some time have a tendency to forget about bowling,” Ailor says. “But ‘Rollin’ With the Pros’ reminds them of how much fun it can be. Some haven’t been in [the center] in the past 10 years, and they are floored because it is totally different than it used to be.”
Putting a dollar amount on Bowling World’s goodwill is challenging. But Ailor says “it helps our business in a positive way. It doesn’t happen immediately. It could be down the road.”
But that’s secondary to all the good it does for members of the community who are fighting cancer, healing from burns or getting on with their lives in creative ways after serving their country.
In that light, the charitable work done at Bowling World is priceless.
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