Daily News

Bowl for Kids’ Sake Raises $75,792 for Area Youth

SPRINGFIELD — Through a diverse combination of corporate sponsorships, business teams, and individual donations, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Hampden County (BBBSHC) raised $75,792 through its 2016 Bowl for Kids’ Sake fund-raising event this spring. The total exceeded the agency’s goal of $75,000, making 2016 the strongest year to date for the annual bowl-a-thon.

“We are so grateful to everyone who made the event such a success,” said BBBSHC Executive Director David Beturne, “including our top sponsors, Mercy Medical Center, St. Germain Investment Management, Wolf & Company, P.C., and Yankee Candle Company, as well as the dozens of enthusiastic company teams from businesses throughout Hampden County. We’re especially grateful to the hundreds of individuals, including many of our own ‘bigs’ and ‘littles,’ who came out to have some fun for a good cause. We look forward to putting 100% of those funds to good use doing what we do best: changing young lives for the better, right here in Hampden County.”

Funds raised will be used to support the agency’s youth-mentoring programs that match at-risk Hampden County youth one-to-one with caring adult volunteer mentors. Nearly 300 people participated in the event, which spanned multiple weekends in April and May at Shaker Bowl in East Longmeadow.

Founded in 1967, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Hampden County has provided one-to-one mentoring services to at-risk youth, primarily from single-parent, low-income families in Hampden County, plus the towns of South Hadley and Granby. The nonprofit agency is a full member agency of Big Brothers Big Sisters of America.