Madison Bowl’s (Tenn.) “Salute” Goes from Bowling Center to Sunday School
If area residents hadn’t heard of Madison Bowl, located in the Nashville, Tenn. suburbs, before last Memorial Day, they certainly know it now. That’s thanks to Madison’s recent coordination of an event for the “Bowlers Salute America’s Troops” carpet lane campaign.
It started when Chuck Sieberling, owner of Madison Bowl, decided to hold an open play morning to raise money to send over the “Bowlers Salute America’s Troops” carpet lane.
“I thought the campaign was a good statement for the bowling community to make. I called the television stations and told them what we were doing. I said that Tennessee is the Volunteer State and we ought to be doing our part to support our service men and women,” explains Sieberling. He encouraged the area media to cover the story.
And cover it they did. News about the event ran throughout the day on two local television affiliates, and the local newspaper did a series of articles on the campaign. “We got a ton of publicity with the event,” reports Sieberling. “It was all over the TV and in the newspapers.” From there, the effort caught fire – with word spreading about the campaign across town.
When an area USBC member saw the story on television, she took the project to her Church Sunday school class. Then, the children got involved with the project, too.
Soon after, Sieberling got a call from American Legion Post 1281. Recalls Sieberling, “They wanted to get involved, too, and support our troops.”
When the Church and the American Legion called, Sieberling says, “We got back to BVL and requested a couple more of the nylon storage bags so that each group could go out and solicit funds and sign the bags.”
At Sieberling’s event, the carpet lane was rolled out for display, and participant/contributors were asked to sign the nylon storage bag for the carpet lane – sending messages to the troops. Sieberling placed a box on the display table seeking names and addresses of potential recipients for the lane. “We had a lot of military families show up to bowl and they brought along their loved one’s address. We wanted to send the lanes to Tennessee units to show our support for our local men and women now serving,” he adds.
“This is a great program for bowling -- you’ve got to put back into your community,” concludes Sieberling. “I’m going to do it again for Veterans Day.”
