When I look at the shelf above the computer and I see the little cow bell and the picture of Doris sitting beside it I remember the Wii bowling tournaments. We had one every year in February or March at Wesley Towers when Denise or I was the Activities Director.
What would the little cow bell have to do with a Wii Bowling tournament? It was a very large part of the tournament and every game that we bowled those two days. The cow bell belonged to Doris, thus her picture sitting beside it.
The tournament was between the residents and the staff. The residents bowled two to three times a week and bowled several games each during their sessions. They were all pretty good and some had even had perfect scores along the way. They were always excited to test the staff that came to bowl against them. We usually bowled with two staff and two residents for each game and then the next game different staff and residents.
The scores from the games were compiled and the winner of the whole tournament was the team with the highest pin total. I don’t think the staff ever won a single game. If we did it wasn’t by enough to get us anywhere close to the total the residents had during the tournament.
The tournament took two days for the staff to bowl all the resident bowlers at least once. We scheduled as many staff members as we could get who were able to take 30 minutes out of their schedule to bowl one game against the residents.
A few times I had t-shirts made for the staff members that bowled in the tournament so we felt more like a team. The staff members were from every department on the campus from the grounds crew, kitchen help, activities department, nurses, house keeping, maintenance, and of course the office workers. The CEO always bowled with the staff, which the residents loved. They loved the chance to get to know him better and of course to beat him at bowling.
There was a cheerleading squad for the tournament and Doris was always the ring leader. The little cow bell belonged to her and she never missed a game. She only cheered for the residents though, as was the case with any of the residents that came to watch the games.
Doris always brought the little bell and rang it loudly when the residents made a spare. She had one at least twice as big as the little cow bell that she rang for a strike. When the staff made a strike or a spare there was silence from Doris and the bells.
I made a sign for the ring leader of the cheerleaders to wear and she proudly pinned it on her shirt to wear during the tournament. The only cheerleaders the staff had were other staff members that were there to bowl in the next game and the 2 that were bowling at the time. I tried to cheer as loud as I could but there was no way we could match the sound of the cow bells being rung by the residents head cheerleader.
I am not sure how many games we played over the years of the tournament between the residents and the staff. But I do know that the staff never won a tournament. Therefore Staff was never engraved on the trophy as winners for any of the tournament years. The little cow bell and Doris helped the residents (as if they needed any help) to win all the games and the tournaments against the staff members. To contact Sandy: [email protected]
