Boca Helping Hands’ Bowling for Bread

*L-R Andy Eisele – Diana Eisele – Event Sponsor Lee Steinberg – Shane Brown – Amanda Eisele*

Benefitted Local Children’s Charities

Boca Raton, FL – After a two-year COVID-19 hiatus, Boca Helping Hands (BHH) hosted its annual Bowling for Bread event on Sunday, August 28 at Bowlero in Boca Raton. BHH invited kids from local children’s charities to attend at no cost and enjoy an afternoon of fun and bowling. Proceeds from the event will support the BHH Backpacks weekend meal program and the participating children’s charities.

The children’s charities that attended and will be beneficiaries of the event included 4KIDS of South Florida, Inc., Achievement Centers for Children & Families, Adopt a Family, American Association of Caregiving Youth, Boys & Girls Club of Boca Raton, Family Promise of South Palm Beach County, Fuller Center, HomeSafe, Place of Hope, PROPEL, SOS Children’s Villages, and Pearl City Cats.

The bowling event attracted 250 guests, with more than half of the lanes reserved for 151 children from the 12 participating charities. Attendees enjoyed pizza, wings, BBQ sandwiches, and chips and salsa donated by Tomasso’s Pizza & Subs, Lucille’s Bad to the Bone BBQ, Miller’s Ale House, Bru’s Room Sports Grill, and Rocco’s Tacos.

Besides enjoying an afternoon of bowling, each of the kids received 10 free raffle tickets, used for chances to win one of 15 fun baskets filled with toys, games, sporting equipment, art supplies, and more.

Trophies were awarded to the top three bowling teams and overall high score. Bowling tournament winners were:

3rd place team – American Eagle Outfitters (AEO) Foundation

2nd place team – Jack Jaiven and Friends

1st place team – Rotary Club of Boca Raton

The top score was 220, bowled by Ed Sethness.

In addition, over 1,000 pounds of donated (non-perishable) food was collected and contributions up to $10,000 were matched dollar for dollar by the Gary Peters Family Foundation in support of these local kids’ programs.

Boca Helping Hands has operated BHH Backpacks for the past 11 years, providing food-insecure students with non-perishable, easy-to-prepare meals every Friday to ensure they get enough to eat on the weekends. During the 2021-22 school year, BHH Backpacks helped over 1,500 students in 12 local schools, providing a record 280,398 meals and 140,199 snacks.

Bowling for Bread was part of Boca Chamber Festival Days—a series of fun-filled August events intended to raise awareness and funds by pairing nonprofits with for-profit members of the Greater Boca Raton Chamber of Commerce. AvalonBay Communities was Bowling for Bread’s For-Profit Chamber Partner and the Event Sponsor was the Lee Pearlson Steinberg Foundation. Other major sponsors included e5 Pharma, LLC, Mizner Bioscience, LLC, the American Eagle Outfitters (AEO) Foundation, and the Strong Heart Foundation. This is the Lee Pearlson Steinberg Foundation’s fifth year sponsoring the event.

For more information, visit bocahelpinghands.org or contact Karen Swedenborg at 561-417-0913, ext. 202 or via email at Karen@BocaHelpingHands.org.

About Boca Helping Hands

Boca Helping Hands (BHH) is a community-based nonprofit that provides food, medical and financial assistance to meet basic human needs as well as education, job training and guidance to create self-sufficiency. Through its various programs, BHH assists over 27,000 people annually.

In 2021, BHH distributed more than 70,000 pantry bags from five Palm Beach County locations and served nearly 80,000 hot meals. The organization expands access to affordable medical, dental and behavioral care through its partnerships with Genesis Community Health (serving clients at clinics in Boca Raton and Boynton Beach) and Florida Atlantic University’s Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing Community Based Clinics (serving residents in West Palm Beach). In addition, BHH sends weekend meals home with food-insecure elementary school students via the BHH Backpacks Program and assists working families with the rising cost of childcare through the Children’s Assistance Program (CAP).

With an increased focus on client self-sufficiency, BHH awards scholarships for qualified candidates to attend accredited vocational training classes that prepare them for careers in the healthcare, information technology, construction, and transportation industries. BHH also offers free English as a Second Language (ESOL) classes, as well as courses in nutrition and other life skills. In addition, staff and volunteer mentors counsel the unemployed and underemployed in basic workplace skills and help them polish resumes and search for jobs.

Boca Helping Hands is a partner agency of The Town of Palm Beach United Way. Since 1945, the Town of Palm Beach United Way has been committed to improving lives and building strong communities throughout Palm Beach County by focusing on programs and priorities that promote education, health, and financial stability.

Charity Navigator named Boca Helping Hands a Four-Star Charity for the 15th consecutive year in June 2021. Boca Helping Hands is located at 1500 NW 1st Court, Boca Raton, FL 33432. For more information, please visit BocaHelpingHands.org.