What are we doing?

What Are We Doing

2024

New Hashtag - #ChasingAMillion - Goal is to get to one Million in awarded scholarships by 12.31.2026.

The Bowl4Life John Alan Glasgow Ambassador Program and Scholarship Program is announced.

 

2023

Lots of behind the scenes planning taking place!!  We reached just over $566,000 in lifetime awarded scholarships.    

 

2022

This year our tagline was #Chasing122kin2022.  During 2022 we awarded 244 scholarships for a total of $131,000 during the calendar year.  

2021

We awarded $101,300 in scholarships touching 139 recipients.

January 2021

Bowl4Life gained new Gold sponsors Josh & Aimee Blanchard (JB Bowling) – Josh recently retired as an active competitor on the PBA Tour.  He sold his jerseys on-line and donated the proceeds to Bowl4Life.  The Floyd family (Chris, Marie & Emily) renewed their Gold sponsorship and scheduled two bowling fundraiser events in their hometown of Lockport, LA.  Team Rettig, (Ben, Lycia & Emily) from Cumming, GA became a Platinum sponsor.    We debuted the new Beach Scene B4L jersey, as made popular by Jamie Thomas.  We awarded the Bowl4Life Jacob Boris Scholarship Awards in honor of our first Bowl4Life Scholarship recipient, Jacob Boris. 

We all continue to do our parts to help combat this virus that still has us searching for answers for almost a year.

 

December 2020

We gained a new executive sponsor with Bud Moore Lanes, Bill & Kate Moore.  This is very exciting for us and we look forward to working with Bill on some cool ideas once we are all safe to convene.  Our great friend Nevin Brede in Minnesota donated a Jeff Gordan collector ball to be raffled as a fundraiser for Bowl4Life.  We awarded the Bowl4Life Davey Rosen Scholarships in honor of our fabulous Executive Sponsor Davey Rosen.  Bowl4Life named our 2020 Athletes of the Year, Brandon Haney and Jamie Thomas. These two young people support our Foundation in everything they do.

 

October 2020

Our very own Tiffany Gardner, (our daughter in law) was named Bessemer City Middle School Teacher of the Year.  This is an award so deserved.  This lady loves her students and goes above and beyond every day.  We welcomed new Silver Level sponsor The Bohn Family, Parker, Leslie, Justin, Brandon and Sydney.  The Bohn family is near and dear to our hearts and we support each other in everything.  We awarded the Bowl4Life James Bryant scholarship awards.

 

September 2020

In conjunction with the PBA , the Bowl4Life Johnny Petraglia Scholarships were awarded.  Details are on the Scholarship Recipients page.  We supported the Parker Bohn Labor Day event and awarded $2,000 in scholarships by luck of the draw.

 

August 2020

We continued our support of the Minnesota USBC event and awarded $1,000 in scholarships by luck of the draw.

July 2020

We reach an agreement with Coolwick to become a logo sponsor and also welcome Silver Sponsor Mike Flanagan of Inside Bowling.  In honor of our great friend Jeff Schrumm, how fought a hard and long battle with cancer, Bowl4Life ran a fundraiser in his memory and awarded $20,000 in scholarships.  We made the difficult decision to postpone the Grant Miller Bowl4Life tournament in October.  

 

June 2020

Visit the Scholarship Recipients page to review the scholarships awarded in honor of our Executive Sponsor Storm Bowling

 

April 2020

We all continue to miss bowling and our friends and of course competition.  Our great friends in North Dakota donated a B4L model race car to be raffled and sent us one as well. 
 

March 2020

Our world is being turned upside down by the C”OVID-19 virus – We asked our B4L kids to submit videos of their time in quarantine – Our kids are so very creative!!!!  All videos are up on Facebook for your viewing pleasure.  Please visit the Scholarship Recipients page to review the scholarships awarded for Logoinfusion and Ace Mitchell.

 

February 2020

Please refer to the scholarships page to see the awards for February – while we were scheduled to award five $1,000 scholarships, we elected to award six –congratulations to all the winners who promote Bowl4Life in everything they do.  We are very appreciate of the efforts of these kids and their families.

Behind the scenes we are putting the final touches on lots of exciting promotions for Bowl4Life and working of our plans to attend Junior Gold.  We announced the new scholarship offering., the Bowl4Life Ace Mitchell Scholarship (see scholarships page for details).  The awards for the Logoinfusion Scholarships, in which the deadline for applications has closed, will be announced in March.  Of course we have already begun working on the 2nd Annual Bowl4Life Grant Miller Event.  Be sure you have those dates marked off on your calendar.

 

January 2020

We cannot even begin to tell you how exciting it was to attend the PBA Hall of Fame Dinner in Arlington, TX – The highlight for us was witnessing Chuck Gardner being presented the 2019 Tony Reyes Community Service Award.  If you have not had an opportunity to watch the entire evening in the replay on FloBowling, we encourage you to do so.  You will see another side of Chuck during his acceptance speech.  It was heartfelt and extremely moving !!!  We were so glad Vicki, Chuck2 and Tiffany could be there.  In addition our great friends Jon Stites, Tony & Shari Yarbrough and the one and only Jacob Boris were in attendance as well.  It was truly a great night that we will never forget.

We also awarded five $1,000 scholarships (see scholarship recipients page) and announced the newest scholarship offering, the 2020 Logo Infusion Bowl4Life Scholarship – be sure to tell everyone you know about Bowl4Life and help us achieve the $100,000 goal.

 

December 2019

The PBA Rookie of the Year was announced to be Mykel Holliman – On December 18 we announced the winner of our $2,500 scholarship as a result of the essay – What would becoming a Rookie of the Year mean to you? – This scholarship was open to junior bowlers of all ages.  During a Facebook live announcement to welcomed Evan Thro to the Bowl4Life family.  Evan also received a phone call directly from Mykel Holliman to congratulate him.

The 2019 Eileen’s Bowling Buddy Bowl4Life Scholarship and the 2019 Jacob Boris Bowl4Life Scholarship were awarded on New Year’s Eve.  Each scholarship was $1,000 – details of the recipients may be found on the Scholarships page.

Jon Stites and Shawn James hosted their annual Bowl4Life Fundraiser in Virginia Beach, where $1,460 in scholarships were awarded.  In addition they made a donation to Bowl4Life, securing their Platinum status for 2020.

In January and February 2020, Bowl4Life will award five $1,000 scholarships in both months, based on past scholarship applications.  The five recipients for January will be announced on Saturday, January 18 from the PBA Hall of Fame Dinner.  The entire Bowl4Life family will be on hand as Chuck Gardner receives the Tony Reyes Community Service Award that night.  In addition, the newest scholarship offering will be announced, which will be awarded in March.  Applications will be available on January 18, 2020.

2020 plans are in the works for additional fundraising efforts, including raffles that can be hosted in all areas of the country.  Please let us know if you would like to oversee a raffle in your area.

October/November 2019

Over a year in the planning stages, we pulled off the 1st Annual Bowl4Life Grant Miller Memorial Tournament – this was an extreme success thanks to our fabulous volunteers, sponsors, parents and juniors that participated.  For a $200 entry fee, which included a Brunswick High Performance Ball, and was limited to 128 entries, we awarded 100% of the entry fee in scholarships – Yes, $25,600 was awarded to our participants.  You can see a full list of the awards on the tournament results page.  In addition, we awarded $1,750 during the fun Eliminator and another $500 for the costume contest.   The week-end was filled with seminars with Chuck Gardner, Parker Bohn III, Kelly Kulick, Jason Couch, Rhino Paige,  Jason Sterner and Connor Pickford.  There was a live auction on Friday night, corn hole games and live entertainment from Brandon Davidson.  Both silent auctions and 50/50 raffles were held all day Saturday and Sunday.  The juniors had the pleasure of retrieving their Brunswick High Performance Bowling Ball directly from the PBA Truck.  He supplied snacks, cupcakes and bottled water to the juniors all week-end.  The entire week-end was a huge success and the 2020 event was scheduled for October 30, 31 & November 1, 2020.  Chuck also announced the 2020 goal for awarded scholarships would be $100,000 – time to start planning !!!

August/September 2019

Chuck Gardner was invited to be the guest speaker at the Minnesota USBC Jamboree and included a seminar, a very inspirational speech to the young bowlers, a ball clinic and lots of fun and smiles.  We even partnered with SokGuru and gave away three small scholarships.

Chuck was at the PWBA Events in Louisville KY & Orlando FL

Bowl4Life was excited to take part in the 20th Anniversary of the Parker Bohn Scholarship Event at Howell Lanes in NJ.  If you have not bowled in this, you need to get it on your schedule – they do an absolutely fantastic with everything!!!  We also gave away $1,000 in scholarship awards by luck of the draw!!! 

Registration for the Grant Miller Bowl4Life Event opened on August 26 – this is limited to 128 participants. 110 entries were solidified on the first day!!  Not too bad for the first time around!!!  We still expect it to be full before the November 1 deadline.

Brunswick Bowling donated $300 for Bowl4Life to give as a scholarship for Dasha Korvalova’s 300 game, which Bowl4Life matched and awarded.

We celebrated Chuck’s 60th birthday with a surprise party for him at the PWBA Players Championship in Raleigh, NC.  It was hard getting so many people together and hoping no one spilled the beans!!!  He was totally caught off guard and stunned!!!  Special thanks to the Kurt family for helping get everything organized and set up!!

We opened the next scholarship of $2,500 to coincide with the PBA Rookie of the Year – applications must be postmarked by October 31, 2019 – the essay is “What would becoming a Rookie of the Year mean to you?”.

We then headed to the PWBA Road to Richmond where Chuck presented Dasha Kovalova with a beautiful crystal bowling pin, on behalf of Brunswick Bowling, for her perfect game on national TV.  We also announced the lucky winners of the fundraiser which was done in honor of Chuck’s birthday.  The lucky winner of the visit by Chuck and Deborah was John LaSpina!!!  We look forward to getting this visit on the schedule and doing some fun things with his customers.  We also awarded four $500 scholarships, details on the scholarship page. 

 

 

June/July 2019

Chuck Gardner attended the Turbo Collegiate Expo as a guest speaker for the ninth consecutive year.  Thank you to Turbo for choosing Bowl4Life as your charity of choice in 2019.  Turbo sold pictures of their attendees with the 2018 PBA Player of the Year and Turbo staffer Andrew Anderson for a nominal fee.  The proceeds were designated to Bowl4Life and Turbo was gracious and matched the amounts.  We love our partnership with Turbo!!!! 

We attended the DV8 Bowl4Life Shootout and had such a great time meeting so many of our supporters!!!  Special thank you to Travis Sparks for including us in his superb event!!!  On July 22, we awarded $7,500 in scholarships as part of the Johnny Petraglia PBA Bowl4Life Scholarship offering from the essays “What Patriotism Means To Me”. In addition, we did a random drawing for simply stopping by our booth at Jr Gold and presented a $500 scholarship to a lucky winner. Details may be found on the Scholarships Recipients Page.

Deb is running a birthday fundraiser and will donate 100% of the raised funds in scholarships.

We welcomed new sponsors Victory Lanes (Paul Kreins), CFS (Mark Steighner) and Bo Goergen to the Bowl4Life family.

We continue to gear up for registration for the Grant Miller Bowl4Life Event. Registration will open on Monday, August 26, 2019 at noon EST.  All details surrounding registration and the tournament may be found on the Grant Miller B4L Tournament page of this website.

May 2019

The scholarship theme was What Life Lessons Have You Learned From Bowling – this was designed to be one $1,000 scholarship – On May 9, 2019 we awarded two $500 scholarships and one $1,000 scholarship.  Details may be found on the Scholarships Recipients page.

The current scholarship offering is TWO - $2,500 Scholarships – The Johnny Petraglia PBA Bowl4Life Scholarship applications must be postmarked by June 29, 2019 – the essay is What Patriotism Means To Me.  Applications may be found on the Scholarships Applications page.

We welcomed new Platinum Sponsor Miller Painting.  Miller Painting is owed by Alan and Tammi Miller who are the parents of Grant Miller, whom our Memorial Tournament will honor on November 1 – 3, 2019. 

There is a new Tournament Page on the website – you can access it from our home page – details will be posted as they are released



April 2019

Seven "A Picture is Worth 1,000 Words" Scholarships were awarded totaling $3,500.00  Details may be found on the Scholarships Recipients page.

A new scholarship offering was announced – applications must be postmarked by April 30 – the essay is “What life lessons have you learned through bowling?”.

Registration for the Grant Miller Memorial Bowl4Life Event, to be held on November 1 -3, 2019, will open on Monday, August 5 at noon – the first 128 entries will secure their spot into the event. We expect this event to sell out within one hour and there will be an opportunity to get on the waiting list.  Brandon Davidson will be the headliner musician for the Friday night event, which will be sponsored by Brunswick and called the Brunswick Boo Bash.

Nancy Grau from Ace Mitchell made a presentation to her sales force about Bowl4Life so they can, in turn, speak to their customers in detail.  This is exactly how our sponsors and everyone associated with Bowl4Life can help us continue to grow. Ace Mitchell will also be doing a Bowl4Life themed T-Shirt at Bowl Expo – be sure to stop by their booth to get your T-Shirt.



March 2019

Three Rick Hill Memorial Bowl4Life Scholarship awards totaling $2,250 were announced.  Details may be found on the scholarships page.

The Northshore Youth League in Slidell, LA became a Gold Sponsor by hosting a Junior Gold Qualifier to benefit the Bowl4Life Foundation.  Thank you to Chris Floyd for overseeing this event and spreading the word about Bowl4Life.

Tom Menz of JF Bowling Pro Shop in New Lenox, IL showed his support of Junior Bowling by signing up as a Platinum Sponsor.  We are excited to welcome Tom and his wife to the Bowl4Life family.

Another scholarship offer has been posted – applications must be postmarked by March 30 – the essay is “A Picture is Worth 1,000 Words”.  Details may be found on the scholarship page.



February 2019

The Davey Rosen Bowl4Life Diabetes Scholarship was awarded, courtesy of a $1,000 donation from Davey Rosen and a $500 match from Bowl4Life – this was a nomination based award and was designated to a junior bowler battling Diabetes.  Many thanks to Davey Rosen for his generosity, which makes him our first personal Executive Sponsor!!!!

Bowling Industry magazine published an article written by Mark Miller in the February 2019 entitled “Welcome to the Bowling Family” which was all about Bowl4Life.  It was phenomenal to see our story in print and to be recognized for what we are doing.  Let us know if you would like to see the article. 

January 2019

Travis Sparks announces his long time event will bear the new name of DV8 Bowl4Life JuniorBowling.com Youth Shootout !!!  This is so awesome.  We are excited to be in Detroit for this fabulous tournament and hope to see many of our youth followers bowling on July 11 or July 12 in preparation for Junior Gold !!!  Thank you Travis, we are honored !!!!

On January 10, 2019 we lost a long-time friend, not only to us personally but to the sport of bowling, Rick “Pappy” Hitt.  Rick’s family requested people to make donations to Bowl4Life in lieu of flowers, in his memory.  We decided to take it a step further and give back the donations in the form of two $750 scholarships – those applications will close on February 28, 2019 and the awards will be announced in March 2019.  As Rick was tremendous Pro Shop Operator, the essay is “Who is your favorite pro shop operator and why?”. 


On New Year’s Eve 2018 we turned the Jacob Boris Scholarship Award of $1,000 into awards totaling $1,500 and the Eileen’s Bowling Buddy $500 Scholarship turned into a total of $4,000 in scholarships, for a total of $5,500 in scholarship awards to start our 2019. Please visit the scholarship section to see the recipients.

For 2019 we welcome High5Gear as a Platinum sponsor – once again Breaking Down the Barriers in our industry. Thank you to Todd Molbeck for his trust in Bowl4Life and for assisting us in our mission to help kids pay for college. Our sponsors realize we can truly make a difference by all working together. Eileen’s Bowling Buddy, in addition to sponsoring the Bowl4Life Athlete of the Month, becomes a Platinum Sponsor as well!!! Thank you Sandy Byron and Cam Blazek. Alexandria Area USBC from Minnesota renews their Platinum Sponsorship – This is their 3rd annual sponsorship thanks to Nevin Brede. We appreciate their support and promotion of Bowl4Life in the Minnesota area.

An Executive Sponsor, LogoInfusion remains intact for 2019 – Ken and Kathy Keegan are great partners with Bowl4Life – LogoInfusion supplies all of our online Bowl4Life jerseys and a very cool sponsorship jersey to anyone becoming Platinum or Executive Sponsor.

On Christmas Day 2018 we announced an epic Bowl4Life event to be held on
November 1,2, & 3, 2019 at Liberty Lanes in Gastonia, NC – The event will be called the Grant Miller Bowl4Life Event. This will be so much more than a tournament. As details are finalized they will be released to the public. We urge everyone to like and follow our Facebook page so they are not left out. Here are a few highlights:
  • Sign-ups to open around August 2019 with a $200 entry fee
  • Field will be limited to 128 entries
  • All participants will bowl 2 rounds on Saturday and one round on Sunday
  • There will be 4 divisions – U20 and U15 – boys and girls in each
  • Payout ratio of 1:4 in each division
  • Friday will be full of activities, registration and include a party that evening
  • All participants will receive a Brunswick High Performance bowling ball  
  • Guaranteed $20,000 to be awarded in Bowl4Life Scholarships through the
  • SMART program.

Also on Christmas Day we established our 2019 goal of $50,000 in scholarship awards. We are so excited to more than double our 2018 number and hope to see continued growth in the foundation.


2018
The goal going into 2018 was to award a minimum of $20,000 in junior scholarships
during the 2018 calendar year – We are happy to report the total amount awarded in 2018 was $22,320.00. A special thanks to our great ambassadors that support our mission, especially our sponsors, those of you that purchase our merchandise and participate in our raffles and of course those of you that run fundraisers.

Jon Stites held his annual Bowl4Life fundraising tournament on Saturday, December 29, 2018 in Virginia Beach at Lynnhaven Lanes and Jon became a Platinum Sponsor of Bowl4Life. Jon is one of our true ambassadors and simply an avid supporter of our Foundation. We greatly appreciate all he does to promote Bowl4Life all over the United States.

In December, we truly started to Breakdown the Barriers in our industry by welcoming Storm Bowling Products as a Platinum Sponsor. We are absolutely thrilled that Bill Chrisman and Gary and Leanne Hulsenberg share the vision of Bowl4Life. We are hopeful this sponsorship will be first of many in our industry that realize our mission far exceeds any brand identification and that our sole focus is helping kids pay for college. Gary & Leanne Hulsenberg also became personal Silver Sponsors.

Special thanks to Rob & Renee Comito, long time personal friends in becoming
personal Silver Sponsors.

In November 2018 Turbo 2N1 Grips announced the Bowl4Life Foundation as the official charity of the Turbo Collegiate Expo in 2019!!! What a tremendous show of faith into our mission – Chuck has been part of the Turbo family for over 30 years and now the entire Bowl4Life family is beyond excited to have a presence at the Turbo Collegiate Expo. Be sure to stop by and visit with us when you are there.

 

2017

Bowl4Life continued our partnership with the YES Initiative and USBC to sponsor the USA Bowling Coaching program.  We sponsored events in the following locations: Sooner Lanes in Norman OK, JB’s on 41 in Milwaukee WI, Stardust Bowl in Addison IL, Fountain Bowl in Fountain Valley CA, Red Rock Lanes in Las Vegas NV, ITRC in Arlington TX and AMF Auburn Lanes in Auburn, MA.

We continued the Youth Bowler of the Month and were introduced to some amazing junior bowlers – You can read all about them by clicking this link –

If you know a tremendous youth bowler that deserves to be recognized, please let us know.

We hosted the First Annual Ultimate Fan Experience with the winner Michael Harlow from North Dakota – Michael flew into Charlotte, stayed with Chuck and Deborah Gardner at their home, shadowed Chuck at the PBA50 event as he worked with the bowlers to prepare them for the tournament, got a tour of the PBA Truck, had a lesson with Chuck and Chuck2, received a new bowling ball, bowled in the ProAm and then attended a party with over 100 people in attendance, including several of the Hall of Fame PBA members at the Gardner Estate.  It was a memorable experience for him and we look forward to the 2018 event, which will be announced later in 2018.

Chuck Gardner was the guest speaker at the 2017 NAIA Invitational event – this is a fabulous venue and he was so proud to have been requested.

We welcomed new sponsors Kegel Training Center, the Alexandria Area USBC, Andy Ippoliito, Dave Taylor and Dave Sill as sponsors.  They join Brunswick Bowling Products, LogoInfusion, Davey Rosen, Bowling Solutions, Hudson Bowling Supply and Jeff Richgels.  We are so thankful for our sponsors and hope they realize how very important they are to us.

We received memorial donations and were the recipients of donations in lieu of wedding gifts for Walter Ray and Fancy Williams!!!!  Someone set up a donate to Bowl4Life for their birthday on Facebook, we had people hold fundraising tournaments, raffles and even a Fantasy Football League for Bowl4Life.  We joined Smile.Amazon.com – now if you log onto smile.amazon.com each time you plan to order on Amazon, select Bowl4Life as your charity of choice and Amazon will make a donation to Bowl4Life on your behalf !!!  How easy is that???

We introduced the B4L car decal, the pullover fleece, the ladies tank top, several new jerseys and T-Shirts, the Pop-Socket for your cell phones and the beautiful B4L bowling shoe!!!  Remember, if everyone we know purchased one item a year we would be able to award triple the scholarships!!!!

We attended Bowl Expo, courtesy of Kevin and Ron Woods with Hudson Bowling Supply.  We camped out in their booth and spoke to lots and lots of people about our vision.

The first annual PBA Scholarships of $1,000 each to a male and a female (Jacob Boris and Meghan Macunovich) turned into three scholarships instead of two when Kurt Kaan was selected as well.

We sponsored numerous junior events throughout the United States, even as far away as Hawaii, providing luck of the draw scholarships to both male and female participants.

The inaugural Jacob Boris Scholarship and the Eileen’s Bowling Buddy Scholarship were awarded for $500 each.  We announced a Male and Female Athlete of the Year to Jacob Boris and Madison Janack – each being awarded $500 scholarships.

It was a fun-packed year with our total scholarship awards being $7,800 - making it a grand total of $23,000 since 2013. 

 

2016
      

The Bowl4Life Foundation is proud to have a continued partnership with the YES initiative and USBC to sponsor the USA Bowling Coaching program to support the #growbowling movement.

USA Bowling Coaching is a grassroots instruction plan that teaches volunteers in bowling centers around the nation the basic skills needed to teach the sport of bowling to our youth.

Free seminars are conducted throughout the country so bowling proprietors and association leaders can send their volunteers to learn how to teach the game.

USA Bowling Coaching features some of the most recognized coaches in the United States.

The Youth Education Services (YES) Fund is a united effort by industry leaders in the sport, initiated by the Bowling Proprietors’ Association of America and the United States Bowling Congress, dedicated to youth bowling development and marketing.

2015

The Bowl4Life Foundation took part in the first 100% paid back guaranteed prize fund youth tournaments in the greater North Carolina area partnering with local bowling centers to support the #growbowling movement. Youth participants from the ages of 8 to 18 laced up their shoes to compete with the best in the area. A special thanks to George Pappas Liberty Lanes, Royal Z Lanes, and Strikers Family Fun Center for helping to make the tournaments possible.

2013 - 2014

The Bowl4Life Foundation created the Bowling Solutions JR. Travel Team program. Three teams of nine youth participants were complied to compete in a single and baker style tournament series in preparation for collegiate bowling. The tournament series ran over the course of eight months, with weekly team practices and once a month tournament events. Based on a point system earned throughout the series, scholarships were presented of approximately $12,000 to the participants. With this program, 100% of the monies paid in were disbursed back to the tournament participants in order to start the #growbowling movement.