It’s that time of year again! The Spring 2023 BOWL FOR KIDS’ SAKE (BFKS), hosted by Big Brothers Big Sisters Mountain Region is just weeks away. It’s our biggest fundraiser for our BBBS mentoring program for kids and will be held in mid-April through early May. We have events scheduled statewide in Santa Fe, Española, Gallup, and Taos. 

“It’s engagement, it’s fund raising, it’s having fun, it’s family, community oriented – it’s all the bells and whistles of what an event should be. So, we’re excited!”

– Connie Tooker Nuñez, Del Norte LOV Foundation

Big Brothers Big Sisters is needed now more than ever, especially coming out of the COVID quarantine. Connections are essential, and kids need more help now than ever before. It’s no secret that many adults could use a Big Brother or Big Sister too!

Team building is especially needed after the pandemic. Not only have kids been feeling isolated, but adults too have been feeling disconnected, even from their workplaces. Bowl for Kids’ Sake is a great event to bring staff together. By participating in this interactive event, your company will not only raise funds to support kids in our communities but also change the way your employees work together and feel about themselves and your company.

Just as little ones may wish for a Big Brother/Big Sister mentor outside their family, employees may wish for more teamwork and camaraderie at work as well, especially coming back to work after the Great Disconnect of the COVID era. That’s where Bowl for Kids’ Sake comes in!

The theme this year is Muggle Mania. Form a team and come dressed up for the themed bowling events. It’s not too late to sign up, get bowling, and have fun while helping kids in our communities!

How it works

Our event is more than just bowling. It is a campaign – about having fun to help kids. 

Bowl for Kids’ Sake is our number one source of revenue for the Big Brothers Big Sisters program here in New Mexico. It is also our number one opportunity to connect with corporations and individuals and share with them about our program, the need for our program and how it works, and to find potential new volunteers. 

To participate, we ask corporations, organizations, and individuals to form a team of five, or multiple teams of five – larger companies may have multiple teams. The BFKS event in Gallup has grown tremendously under Sarah Piano’s leadership to where the whole community has fully embraced it.

We need the community to see that Big Brothers Big Sisters is not a “boys and girls” club, but a much needed one-to-one mentoring service that relies on volunteers to mentor each child in our program. Bowl for Kids’ Sake is a great way to support the organization by providing funds vital to volunteer/mentor recruitment. Not only is this event a fun way for your business to get involved and give back to your community, but it also provides an excellent team building opportunity for your employees. 

Surgeon General Report on Youth and Child Depression – “One in three high school students reported persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness, while suicide rates for young people rose 57% in a decade. More child and adolescent psychiatrists are needed.” 

It’s clear that kids need mentoring, and Big Brothers Big Sisters provides invaluable  mentoring opportunities by matching up kids who want mentors with adults who want to be a mentor.  Almost all our Big Brother Big Sister mentors say that they feel they get more out of it than the child does. It feels good to help others, especially so when the good you do is for kids.

100 teams ➝ 500 teams ➝ 2,500 people connected through Bowl For Kids’ Sake

Bowl for Kids’ Sake events raise the funds to keep the BBBS programs going, with peer-to-peer fundraising, business-to-business fundraising, team competitions and a whole lot of fun. It is a great way for businesses to give back to their communities, while simultaneously providing a fun way for their employees to feel camaraderie and a sense of greater purpose with their fellow workers!

Local banks Pinnacle and Washington Federal Bank in Gallup, NM  have experienced a great impact in increasing employee morale. Small businesses such as coffee shops and jewelry stores also get involved in the bowling events, which bolsters their small business reputation and spreads a sense of community and belonging. 

Although BBBS has a national footprint, each agency across the United States is responsible for its own operations, and the funds raised are kept local to grow the local programs. In other words, when you participate in the Santa Fe BFKS event, you are raising funds directly 100% for the BBBS programs in your local Santa Fe schools and community.

Why companies should get involved

Bowl for Kid’s Sake is a campaign – It’s not about bowling. It’s about having fun and helping kids. BFKS is an opportunity to give back, to build stronger teams in a shared mission of helping kids. 

We like to call this peer-to-peer fundraising. “Small asks” add up to big impacts.

We ask corporations to form a team, or many teams, of five people each. We ask each team member to raise $100 or more. This may sound intimidating at first, but to put it into perspective, a team of five people can ask for as little as $10 from 10 people, or $20 from 5 people. Each individual therefore raises $100, for a total of $500 per team. This is a great bonding opportunity for organizations!

Del Norte Credit Union has generously sponsored one match for a single year through Bowl for Kids’ Sake. These guys take their philanthropy seriously and encourage their employees to raise even more funds – helping us meet our goal to serve even more kids locally. Come bowl with them and see how much fun it can be to raise money to help kids! 100% of fundraising goes directly to the BBBS program in your local community.