“For the past 20 years, the Westside Coalition has hosted a bowl-a-thon and this year we decided to add something different and fun,” said Westside Coalition Director, Darci Niva.
On May 19, the Westside Coalition will be hosting their first lawn bowl-a-thon at the Santa Monica Lawn Bowl Club at Douglas Park, on 25th St. and Wilshire.
The Westside Coalition was founded in 1982 and is the oldest coalition of its kind in the country. The non-profit now has up to 45 partnerships with various organizations that help to provide care and services for the homeless people throughout the city.
“Each one of the organizations is dedicated to working together on issues of housing, hunger, and health through service coordination, public education and advocacy,” said Niva.
Many of the members from the organization range from social service providers, to governmental agencies and businesses. Each of them is committed to finding solutions to extreme poverty, and homelessness. However, in order to provide many of these services there needs to be some form of funding.
The annual bowl-a-thon is the only fundraiser organized by the group.
“This event is our main fundraiser of the year and we want to make sure it is a fun event for the community,” said Niva. “In addition this event really does benefit the work of the coalition.”
Niva explains that all the proceeds raised from this event will go toward the Westside Coalition to keep their offices running and to keep their staff because without them the organization would not be able to afford and provide services to the ones in need of help.
Organizers are more than excited for the bowl-a-thon to hit the lawn this year, and for the yearly chief challenge.
This year the Santa Monica Fire Chief, Bill Walker will face off with the Santa Monica Police Chief Jacqueline Seabrooks, as they go one on one at 10 a.m. The winner, takes bragging rights.
“This event is different and fun especially since no one really knows how to lawn bowl, we are all looking forward to see how this plays out” said Niva.
Throughout the event there will be food trucks, giant size jenga blocks, giant operation board game and giant bouncy horses for everyone to play with. Guest are encouraged to dress up with their bowling team and will be qualified to win a prize. However if you are short team players or looking for a team, Navi suggest signing up and giving Westside a call as they will help you find a team to join.
The event begins at 10:30 a.m. and sessions last an hour and half. The event will close at 6 p.m. Tickets start at $40 and for more information you can visit http://www.westsideshelter.org/lawn-bowl-a-thon.html .
marina@www.smdp.com
