Pittsburghers bowl for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital children and families
HARMAR TOWNSHIP (KDKA) — Pittsburghers knocked down some pins for a good cause at a local bowling alley.
The organizers were blown away by the amount of people who showed up to support children receiving treatment at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and show families they are not alone.
People put on some bowling shoes and grabbed the perfect bowling ball on Tuesday night to try to strike out pediatric cancer and other childhood diseases. It was the first Strikes for St. Jude event at Zone 28 in Harmar Township.
"I'm excited because we sold out, and this is our first time doing it," said Durice White Galloway with St. Jude.
About 150 bowlers raised funds for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Tennessee.
Events like this support life-saving research that is shared with hospitals all over the world and help children and families during the most difficult days of their lives.
"For St. Jude, it's critical. No patient or family pays anything. Not for travel, treatment, housing, or food. So, when we do events like this, we're raising funds to help support their treatment so they can just worry about being a kid and beating the disease," White Galloway said.
"We have been committed to raising money and supporting St. Jude for quite some time now. Very interested and passionate in helping to find a cure for sickle cell, pediatric cancer," said India Reed with the Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc.
Local chapters of Zeta Phi Beta sorority and Phi Beta Sigma fraternity have supported St. Jude for a long time, so they put together four teams with about 50 bowlers. There were 35 teams in total for the event.
"This was an opportunity for us all to serve together. We're super excited," Reed said.
Prizes were given out for things like most strikes, highest scoring team and most improved team.
Whether they got strikes or gutter balls, it still felt like they rolled a perfect score.
"We collected donations from people, family, friends wherever we could, and collectively we raised over $2,000," said Reed.
"I love this because it's just people who care. It's people who are trying to help," White Galloway said.
Event organizers said this event will make a difference for many years to come.