Maple Family Centers hosts successful bowling pin decorating contest

Maple Family Centers hosts successful bowling pin decorating contest

Each year, Maple Family Centers replaces all the pins at its five bowling centers with brand-new ones. This year, the company came up with a fun way to involve the local community by staging its inaugural Holiday Pin Decorating Contest.

Beginning Thanksgiving week, the teams at Maple’s five bowling centers distributed thousands of free pins to bowlers and community groups upon request, inviting them to paint or otherwise decorate their pins and enter their creations in the contest. To enter, participants had to upload a photo of their decorated pin by New Year’s Eve.

“We were amazed by the community’s response,” said Teresa McCarthy, Director of Community Outreach for Maple Family Centers. “Libraries, schools and numerous Girl Scout troops requested pins so they could decorate them as a craft project. We dropped off a bunch for the Long Beach Public Library’s kids’ programs, and then they requested more for the adults.”

With five bowling centers in two states – Maple Lanes RVC in Rockville Centre; Coram Country Lanes in Coram; Jib Lanes in Flushing.; Maple Lanes Countryside in Clearwater, Fla.; and Maple Lanes Lakeland in Lakeland, Fla. – Maple uses thousands of pins each year. “We used to sell back old pins to a company that would refurbish them and/or redesign them into ‘Happy Birthday’ pins, some of which we would hand out at our bowling centers,” said Maple Vice President Joe LaSpina. “But that company went out of business during COVID, and we had several years’ worth of used pins – maybe about 10,000 – sitting in inventory.”

Many contest participants created their pin designs with acrylic paint. Others used collage or décollage. About 75% of the entries featured holiday themes, such as snowmen, nutcrackers or Christmas trees. “One of our bowlers, who is a genuine artist, created a ‘storm’ theme that featured the logo of Storm, which is one of the largest bowling ball manufacturers,” said LaSpina. “He gave it to us to present to the owner of Storm as a holiday gift.”

Two winners – one adult and one youth (under 18 years old) – were chosen from each bowling center. The winners each received a free Family Fun Pack, which includes two games of bowling and shoe rentals for up to eight people. “We received a lot of amazing entries, which made it very difficult to select the winners,” McCarthy said. All contest participants received a coupon for a free game of bowling.

Many schools on Long Island requested pins for their art projects, including Baldwin High School, Charles E. Walters Elementary School in Yaphank, Coram Elementary School, Hempstead High School, Holy Angels Regional School in Patchogue, Lynbrook High School, Marion High School in Lynbrook, the Long Beach Special Education Program, and Ridge Elementary School.

“We were thrilled that so many bowlers, as well as schools and community groups, wanted to join in the fun and create decorative bowling pins,” McCarthy said. “Since we regularly upcycle pins, we plan to continue this project in the future.”

For more information about Maple Family Centers, visit www.maplelanes.com.

All photos courtesy of Maple Family Centers.

 

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