A series of fundraisers this month is giving students and community members a new reason to go bowling.
The Philadelphia branch of Big Brothers Big Sisters of America -- a national organization that facilitates youth mentoring and pairs almost 180 Penn students with West Philadelphia children -- is now holding events in which teams of volunteers find corporations to sponsor them in bowling competitions.
The campaign, called Bowl for Kids' Sake, kicked off about two weeks ago at Strikes Bowling Lounge at 4040 Locust Street and featured Penn's men's basketball coach Fran Dunphy.
The next competition is planned for March 22, and will mainly include teams of college students, including some from Penn.
The money received from Bowl for Kids' Sake will be used to pay for background checks on potential mentors and periodic input meetings to check on the status of the match.
According to national organization spokeswoman Noreen Shanfelter, it takes approximately $1,000 to fund a match. She said that the bowling events are "absolutely critical" for fundraising.
College sophomore Nicole Berman said she plans to participate in the event with a team that includes several mentors in the program.
Berman herself serves as a "big sister" to a seventh-grade girl at Shaw Middle School in West Philadelphia.
Berman said she and the girl she mentors go shopping, paint fingernails and make up dances together. Berman said they were paired, in part, because of their shared passion for dance.
Sherryl Kuhlman, a spokeswoman for the Southeastern Pennsylvania chapter of the organization, emphasized the importance of those relationships continuing.
"It's not enough to just make a match," she said. "The real work comes in supporting that match and making sure that it grows strong and healthy."
The agency has seen an increase in the number of college students as mentors in recent years, Kuhlman said.
Fox Leadership Director Joseph Tierney said that the program is working.
Prior to coming to Penn, he conducted an evaluation of the the organization's effectiveness as the vice president of Public/Private Ventures, a consulting firm for nonprofit organizations. He said the program helps at-risk children improve school attendance and grades, improve relationships with parents and reduce alcohol and drug use.
And Penn students, Kuhlman said, may help local children see college as a possibility for the future.
They "start to see college as being not as alien to them," she said.
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