STOKESME BOWL-A-RAMA RAISES MONEY FOR 15 SURF-RELATED ORGANIZATIONS
Nearly 200 Surf Industry Brands, Retailers, and Athletes Bowl to Raise Funds for Humanitarian Organizations
LAGUNA NIGUEL, Calif. (September 16, 2015) – On Tuesday night, the second annual StokesMe Bowl-A-Rama saw nearly 200 people from the surf industry come together to raise funds for the 15 surf-related SIMA Humanitarian Fund beneficiaries. The funds raised at the event go towards StokesMe’s goal of raising $100,000 in the month of September.
The StokesMe Bowl-A-Rama was held at the Costa Mesa 55 Tavern + Bowl on Tuesday, September 15 and saw employees of surf industry brands, retailers, athletes and StokesMe beneficiaries go head-to-head in the bowling tournament. Brands present included Stance, Vans, Electric, Rip Curl, Roark, O’Neill, Vissla and Sanuk plus retailer Tilly’s and industry companies Surfline, Innovative Systems and Agenda. The night’s emcee was industry personality, GT Tomlinson of VonZipper, and also saw appearances from pro surfers including Dane, Tanner and Pat Gudauskas bowling for Vans; Rosy Hodge bowling for Electric; Torrey Meister bowling for Sanuk; and Olympians Jason Lezak and Jim Terrell bowling for the Pipeline to a Cure team. As the night concluded, Team Pipeline to a Cure won the title of 2015 StokesMe Bowl-A-Rama Champions with Team Roark coming in second, and Team Surfline taking third place.
“Now in its fourth year, the mantra for StokesMe is ‘Do the Most Good.’ The Bowl-A-Rama was a great demonstration of that by bringing together the surf industry with our beneficiary organizations to let our hair down and enjoy a night bowling, all while raising money and awareness for the beneficiaries” said SIMA Humanitarian Fund President and StokesMe Chairman, Ross Garrett.
The bowling night was one of many initiatives taking place throughout the month of September for the StokesMe campaign. Seven surf industry brands have signed on as $5,000 Circle of Stoke sponsors and 57 hand-selected retail doors are supporting StokesMe by participating in the StokesMe Add-A-Buck program. StokesMe supporters are also encouraged to visit the StokesMe Volunteer Corps on stokesme.org to search the interactive database and sign up for volunteer opportunities with StokesMe beneficiary organizations.
Throughout the month, additional events have been held to benefit StokesMe including a Happy Hour at the Surf Expo September show in Orlando, FL and a Rip Curl Pro Team Signing at their San Clemente, CA store on September 13th.
Download photos from the event at https://ow.ly/SlFbu. Please give photo credit to @Patnolansurfs.
For more information on StokesMe, how you can get involved, or to make a donation, visit www.stokesme.org.
About StokesMe
StokesMe September is the official fundraising effort for the SIMA Humanitarian Fund. This year, StokesMe supports 15 surf-related humanitarian organizations dedicated to improving the life, health, and/or welfare of people. The 2015 SIMA Humanitarian Fund beneficiaries are: AccesSurf, Best Day Foundation, Boys to Men, Boarding for Breast Cancer, Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, Jimmy Miller Memorial Foundation, John Wayne Cancer Foundation, Life Rolls On, Mauli Ola Foundation, Outdoor Outreach, STOKED, SurfAid, Surfers Healing, Valpo Surf Project and Waves for Water.
About SIMA
The Surf Industry Manufacturers Association (SIMA) is the official working trade association of more than 300 surf industry suppliers. Founded in 1989, SIMA is a non-profit organization that serves to promote awareness of the surf industry and participation in the sport of surfing through public relations efforts and a variety of services, educational programs and research. In addition, SIMA actively supports oceanic environmental efforts through its 501(c)(3) charitable environmental foundation, the SIMA Environmental Fund. In the past 25 years, SIMA’s Environmental Fund has raised more than $7 million for environmental groups seeking to protect the world’s oceans, beaches and waves. The SIMA Humanitarian Fund, also a 501(c)(3) charitable foundation, was established in to award grants to various surf or boardsport related social and humanitarian non-profit organizations whose efforts are focused on improving the quality of life, health and/or welfare of people. Since 2004 the SIMA Humanitarian Fund has raised and donated more than $1.7 million to surf-related non-profit organizations. For more information regarding SIMA, please visit www.sima.com.
