By Scott Allen
The Scene staff
More than $37,000 was raised this year by Bowling for Scholars to help STLCC students buy books and class materials.
The fundraiser’s organizers celebrated a decade of supporting students — with more than $275,000 raised and 1,800 students assisted — on April 11 at Tropicana Lanes in Richmond Heights.
Forest Park student Maikel Piloto, 33, a culinary arts major, bowled with fellow members of the Student Government Association (SGA). He said he participated because Bowling for Scholars is a good cause.
“Hopefully, it will go on 10 years more,” he said.
The event, Piloto said, isn’t only about raising money.
“It’s a good experience to get out here and relax at the end of the semester with your classmates,” he said. “We’re having a ball.”
The fun is part of what makes Bowling for Scholars such a success, said organizer Ellen Gough, an auxiliary manager on the Wildwood campus. She has led the event for six years.
“It brings together every group at the college — teachers, administrators (and) students,” Gough said. “So many of the events that raise money are really outside the reach of students to attend.
This is certainly not a fancy event, but it’s an affordable event, and it’s an event that has great diversity.”
Forest Park student Shaniece McCoy, 19, a nursing major and an SGA taskforce member, said Bowling for Scholars is an important effort for student government.
“It’s for the students,” she said. “We’re very passionate about it.”
Students, faculty and sponsors paid $125 per team to bowl for two hours. Gough said all the money raised goes back to the students through scholarships for books and supplies.
Additional money is raised through silent auctions of bowling pins artfully decorated by students, and goods donated by companies such as Coca-Cola.
“I was an art major, and you can spend $400 or $500 in supplies alone,” said Susan Barnett, a textbook assistant at the Meramec campus bookstore.
She also is a Bowling for Scholars committee member and one of about 25 volunteers who make the event happen.
“Every penny goes back to the students,” she said. “I just find it a very refreshing event to be involved with.”
In each of the past four years, $10,000 has been donated by MBS Textbook Exchange.
Doug Brooks, a major account manager, said the last time he bowled was at the 2013 Bowling for Scholars event. He was there with his Columbia-based MBS team.
“The way we look at it, this helps … people attend STLCC,” he said. “Those people will eventually need to buy textbooks, so we look at it as a reinvestment in our business.”
Brooks said that in his first year bowling, he won the 50/50 raffle, which gave him incentive to return.
“We have a blast,” he said. “It’s a good environment and we have a great time.”
As an auxiliary manager working with students and textbooks, Gough finds there is a real need for Bowling for Scholars funds.
“We want students to succeed,” she said. “And if we’re not giving them the proper instruments to succeed, whether it’s renting textbooks, or buying a coat, or buying their art supplies, we really are doing them a disservice. If they’re lower-income students, they’re really not on a level playing field.”
Not only is it important to support struggling students, Gough said, she feels it’s part of the staff’s job to help them find ways to afford school.
“We … wouldn’t have jobs if it wasn’t for students,” she said. “It’s really important that we remember that they are central to everything that we do.”
Paymon Porshahidy, 20, a Wildwood general education major, rolled at Bowling for Scholars for the first time this year.
“I heard about it through our campus life coordinator,” he said between turns with his Wildwood team. “It’s a great cause. Books are very expensive, and it’s just very helpful for students.
“Everybody’s having fun and it’s going toward a good thing,” he said.