Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
On the back of this year’s Bowling Against Bullying T-shirts is a picture of a whale lifting a sea lion out of the water while a killer whale swims by.
Around the image, the shirt says, “Humpback whales save other animals with no benefit to themselves. Shouldn’t humans do the same?”
Bowling Against Bullying co-organizer and founder Shaun Mudd explained, “Somebody sent me a picture of a whale lifting a seal lion out of the ocean. And, it’s something like a whale is the only animal that will save another animal without benefit to itself.”
In the first two hours of Bowling Against Bullying Saturday at The Bowling Alley, 1535 N. Detroit St., Warsaw, Mudd estimated they had about 60 kids show up for free bowling, pizza and soda.
“A lot of kids. A lot of fun. T-shirts and bags and food and pop. Get jacked up on Pepsi, and things not normally allowed but now Mom can’t keep an eye on you. It’s a lot of fun. Every year it’s good,” he said.
There were a lot of returning bowlers from previous years and some new faces, Mudd stated. “There’s people who’ve been with me since the first year, so that’s pretty cool.”
Jeremy Blakely, his wife and two kids were bowling for the third year.
“Honestly, it’s just a good cause. Bowling against bullies,” he said.
“As long as we’re here in town,” Blakely said, they’ll be back to bowl in 2027.
In 2017, Mudd found out about a student who was being bullied at a local school. Touched by the student’s story, he wanted to do something special for him and other bullied students. It was supposed to have been a one-time thing when he and a friend gathered door prizes and paid for food and lanes at The Bowling Alley. It became an annual event and a nonprofit. It’s been made possible thanks to donations.
Inspire Indiana had a table at the event, offering pin badges and packets of information. Mudd said Inspire Indiana (formerly Kosciusko Cares) Executive Director Renea Salyer came up with the idea for next year to put everything in one bag to give away to each kid.
Salyer said, “We’re passing out information about the programs and services that we provide in the community. We do a lot of prevention of substance use with youth, and then we also help parents to understand what their children are going through, and parenting support group type of situations.”
Saturday, Inspire Indiana also gave out information on “Talk. They Hear You.,” which is an app parents can download on their phone for free. “It gives them tips on how to talk to their kids and just kind of scenarios that they might come across that helps them to deal with those difficult conversations,” Salyer said.
They also passed out pin badges that were anti-bullying and had information on Inspire Indiana, such as their website.
“It’s been going over really well. The parents, and most of the kids, are taking them,” she said. “And then, when we do our programs we teach the kids that they are their own champion, and so we really want them to know that they are enough. That their why is who they are, and learning about themselves, self-awareness, how to cope with their feelings and their anger and things like that, in a healthy way, so that they can make good choices in their future that will help them with their future.”
One of her favorite pins says, “I will always support the underdog,” and she also like the pin that said, “Leave people better than you found them.”
Salyer said Inspire Indiana was excited to have the opportunity to be at Bowling Against Bullying because “we feel like when the community supports our kids, they really can do better in life, and what Shaun’s done with Bowling Against Bullying has really been amazing for our community and it’s something that we support 100%.”
Mudd said The Bowling Alley has been great to host the event every year.
“They actually gave us gaming cards that has money loaded on it already. I think it’s either $5 or $10 that The Bowling Alley themselves has loaded on the cards. And we hand them out to all of the kids that come in. So that’s cool. Hosting a big thing like this every year keeps it busy because they’ve got to make all the pizza and fill all the pop and all that stuff. So I’m very grateful to them, to Jennifer and her crew,” Mudd said.
