Las Vegas Youth Go ‘Bowling with Blue’

This September, children of incarcerated parents laced up their bowling shoes for an Angel Tree Sports Clinic™ at Santa Fe Lanes in Las Vegas. Prison Fellowship^® hosted the event for a second year, welcoming kids ages 5 to 17 to have fun together, build perseverance, and hear the Gospel. Hope and determination are game changers for children of incarcerated parents.

WHAT IS ANGEL TREE SPORTS CLINIC?

Angel Tree Sports Clinic brings kids together to build skills in sports and develop perseverance for life’s challenges. Since Angel Tree's first football clinic in 2005, Angel Tree Sports Clinic has expanded nationwide to offer clinics in soccer, basketball, bowling, and other sports for thousands of kids who might otherwise not have a chance to attend a day camp.

The program welcomes superstar coaches and athletes like Kenny Clark, Sherman Williams, and Clay Matthews III of the NFL, Jackie White of the Harlem Globetrotters, and Olympic figure skater JoJo Starbuck. Every year, thousands of children of all ages attend Angel Tree Sports Clinic events in or around major cities nationwide.

At September's bowling clinic in Las Vegas, local police officers traded their standard-issue boots for bowling shoes and joined local youth at the bowling alley. Many of the officers, affiliated with Adopt-A-Cop Nevada, also came to last year's bowling clinic to support young participants. Adopt-A-Cop is a not for profit that assigns law enforcement to local prayer partners, advocating for safety and unification in the community.

This year’s event included face masks and social distancing protocol for all participants. But like every year, the kids:

• Learned key techniques.
• Received their own sports clinic T-shirt to take home.
• Had a chance to hear the Gospel.

"It's an opportunity for these kids to experience hope, get inside a bowling alley, and have some fun," Prison Fellowship President and CEO James J. Ackerman told News 3 Las Vegas.

Nat Strobel, sports clinic manager at Prison Fellowship, said, "The excitement of the children never gets old."