Mother and Son Bowling Bash

HELPFUL TIPS:

1.  Before you pick a date for the event, it’s always a good practice to look at your overall church calendar to make sure your plans won’t clash with something that another department is working on. Also, check out your local calendar (community events, school events, etc.) to make sure families won’t be torn between too many good options.

2. Visit your local bowling valley at least six months before the event. Explain the nature of your event, ask for a tour of the facilities, take photographs (if necessary for future planning) and explore different options (packages). Suggested questions to ask:

• What facilities will be available to us?
• Are we allowed to bring our own food and drinks?
• Will you be able to play Christian music?
• Do you offer disco/techno bowling with music and light effects?
• Do you have tables and chairs? (for pizza party)
• Are people allowed to take food and drinks to their lane?
• Will you take care of the trash (pizza boxes) and soda cans?
• Do you provide bowling ramps for younger children? Bumpers?
• Do you have glow bowl packages? (Everything glows under black light–lanes, pins, balls, and shoes! The LED disco lighting and down-lane lighting makes for an experience like no other.)

3. If you’re planning on renting the entire facility, which means that the alley will be closed to the public, discuss what your options might be if one week before the event it becomes clear that you can only fill 25 out of 40 lanes. (If you have done Mother + Son Bowling Bash in the past and had an overwhelming response, you may want to skip this step. But if this is your first time to offer this event to your church, and you have no idea what the response will be, it would be wise to have a plan B.)

4. Plan on having a Team Spirit contest encouraging each mom and son(s) team to dress up and show off their spirit. We gave a $25 gift card to a local ice-cream shop. Here’s an excerpt from the email we sent to the mothers encouraging their participation in the Team Spirit contest:

We want you and your sons to have fun, celebrate the unique bond you share and express yourself in any wild and crazy way you want to. Even though you’ll be sharing a lane with another family or two, when it comes to competing for the best score and team spirit prize, each mom & son(s) team is on their own. So you don’t need to coordinate your outfits with the other people on your lane. You and your son(s) are a team, so get out that face paint, hair dye, fabric paint, wigs, costumes and mustache, and go to work.

AFTER THE EVENT

1. Send THANK YOU notes to the event team.

2. Send an email to all the moms thanking them for coming, reminding them how to submit their highest score (if you want to give an extra prize for this) and asking them to fill out an Evaluation Survey. Here’s our survey to give you an idea what questions you might want to ask.

3. Create a gallery of images that can be downloaded using a link given only to the mothers attending the event (Dropbox is our go-to place for uploading images).

4. Create a short post on your ministry’s social media feed, accompanied by some images of the event.

5. Send a THANK YOU to the bowling alley manager/owner. This is a relationship that you will want to cultivate, especially if you plan on this being an annual event.

6. Send the highest score prize to the team that won (we gave them a $25 gift card to a local ice cream shop).

NOTE: Don’t forget to download Event Promo Pack that contains customizable graphics that you can use to promote your event.

I hope that after reading this article, you are already dreaming of hosting a similar event for the mothers in your community. If you need help or have questions about this event, just let me know—I’ll be happy to help.

Oh, and once you do your own Mother & Son Bowling Bash, I’d love to hear how it turned out. Maybe even see a photo or two. Also, if you come up with any brilliant ideas to make this event better, feel free to share them with me.

This article originally appeared here.