LIMA, OH (WLIO) - The community came out and laced up their bowling shoes to support youth mentorship programs in our region.
Around 90 bowlers participated in the Big Brothers Big Sisters of Northwestern Ohio "Bowl For Kids' Sake" fundraiser. The event was both an activity for littles to have a fun day with their bigs, and to raise money for the organization.
During the day's second shift of bowling, the Bath Township Fire Department, Lima Fire Department, Ohio State Highway Patrol Lima Post, and Mercy Health Life Flight competed in teams in the "Battle of the First Responders" to both score the highest in the first round, and see which team could bring in the most donations for the cause.
"We have programs within Lima City Schools, Perry schools, Shawnee, we also go out throughout the community and the funds we raise help with those programs, help us do background checks, help us do recruiting," said Fran Biaglow, executive assistant for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Northwest Ohio.
"As firefighters, all we ever try to do is help people, so if we can get behind a program that is helping the kids specifically, good luck trying to stop us from helping. It's just a very good program to get behind," said Rich Deubler, a firefighter with the Lima Fire Department.
Firefighters and others from the Lima Fire Department put a lot of pride and effort into raising money for Big Brothers Big Sisters.
"We were fortunate that our union, Lima Firefighters Local 334, stepped up and made a really good donation for us this year along with some of the administrative folks at the department, they stepped up and gave us a lot of money, and our chief, Andy Hefner, he was a big part of this. He sponsored the team this year, so we thank him," continued Deubler.
The Lima Fire Department's team took home first place in the competition for the second year in a row.
