Fights cancer, supports animals: Annual bowling, auction event at Zeppoz sets record

The 15th annual benefit bowling tournament at Zeppoz in Pullman brought in a record high return this year at the games last Saturday.

“It was awesome!” said Ron Morgan, who, with his wife Heather, started the benefit event in 2004. The proceeds from the event are split between the Whitman County Humane Society and the Northwest Cancer Foundation of Hope. They were awarded the checks at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday evening at Zeppoz.

That first year the event had 13 teams sign up and raised $650 dollars, without having any auctions.

“My wife cried. She thought it was the coolest fundraiser ever,” said Ron.

Ron and Heather met playing softball, but decided that weather was too unpredictable to hold a softball tournament, so they decided on bowling.

Zeppoz has been a huge supporter of the event, giving over the run of the building for the day. The tournament keeps all 24 bowling lanes occupied from noon until about 8 p.m.

“Zeppoz and their staff are fantastic supporters of that event,” said Ron.

Now with silent and live auctions and door prizes, as well as the bowling tournament, the proceeds that have come in have grown exponentially. More than 300 items were donated this year, including auction items and door prizes. Every person who attended walked away with something.

This year 93 two-person teams signed up to bring in $4,500. The tournament winner was Sam Burns who partnered with Kurt Drussel for the event. Only the first and last places received prizes in the tournament.

“It’s not a real serious tournament by any stretch,” said Ron, recalling how most of the participants bowled maybe once a year.

The auctions included rounds of golf, nights at the Marriott, bowling balls and artwork. The auctions brought in $15,000 this year. The auction item that took on the spotlight was a Cougar flag, signed by the football team members and coaches. The flag was one of 18 live auction items. There were another 70 items for the silent auction.

The proceeds and participation this year is a large increase from previous years.

Last year the benefit brought in 72 teams for the tournament, and raised $14,000 all together, which was then a record-breaking year for the event.

“We’re not sure what happened to make it grow so much, but we’re sure thankful it did,” said Ron.

After the benefit was over, with the credit cards already accounted for, Ron and Heather counted the cash and checks and were amazed to find they made more than $10,000 on top of the credit card sales.

Some years in the past they have also included support for the Lighted Candle Fund.

Since its inception the benefit has made more than $100,000, not including the proceeds from this year.

“We had no idea it would get this big,” said Ron.

With everything accounted for, this years benefit made almost $22,000. They had a lot of support, not only from Zeppoz and the participants, but from several donations and a bake sale run by the Pullman Women of the Moose, which raised $1,000 and donated it all to the benefit. Ron was amazed by the amount of food and funds the bake sale brought in.

“It’s become a community-wide event,” pointed out Ron.

The slogan for the benefit is “Because we love animals and we hate cancer.”

The Morgans felt everyone should be able to relate to one of those themes, and so far they haven’t been proven wrong.