OUR MISSION
The Keeper of the Mountains Foundation aims to educate and inspire people to work for healthier, more sustainable mountain communities and an end to mountaintop removal. We believe a better future in the coalfields requires everyday people to come together and recognize their power to make long-term, lasting change. We envision an organization, led by West Virginians, with real power in West Virginia. We support communities that want to move beyond a coal-based economy and put in its place an economy that values people, land, and mountain heritage.
WHAT IS “BOWLING FOR THE MOUNTAIN KEEPERS”?
Organizing a Bowling for the Mountains Keepers event is an incredibly do-able and useful way for you to contribute to the movement to stop Mountaintop Removal and build a better Appalachia. The KOTM is dedicated to raising money from our grassroots to grow new leadership within the Southern West Virginia Coalfields. This is a great way for you to help us grow our movement to stop Mountaintop Removal and for you to have a great time at a bowling alley!
HOW TO DO IT
This is how it was done in Morgantown, WV.
Organizing the event
2. Once you know when people can attend, set a date and time.
3. Set up a Facebook event for the fundraiser and invite as many people as possible.
4. Reserve bowling lanes. Based on an expected number of participants, find a bowling alley and reserve enough lanes for everyone to bowl. Usually there are six people to a lane. Be sure to reserve at least two extra lanes for unexpected bowlers. **Also, if a lot of people are likely to attend, be sure to negotiate a deal with the bowling alley. For Morgantown, the price of each game was reduced by $1 and the shoes were provided for free!!!
5. Add more fun to the event!!! In Morgantown, Bowling for the Mountain Keepers included a costume contest, and everyone from “Larry Gibson” to Superwoman showed up!!
6. Invite a speaker from the KOTM On The Road Again Program to lead a short talk on Mountaintop Removal so all the bowlers are educated and motivated to take action. Folks need to know why they're there and why they should donate. This should be a SHORT talk though since people are primarily there to have fun & bowl.
7. Make sure that everyone knows to bring enough money to cover 2-3 games of bowling, plus bowling shoes.
Setting up a donation process: There are many ways to raise funds for KOTM through Bowling for the Mountain Keepers.
2. Set up a Google donation form. This form simply collects information from people and does not accept donations. You can find this option through your Google account. It only takes 30 minutes to set up the form. You can learn how to set up a form by doing a quick search for “how to set up a google form.”
a. The form should, at a minimum, require entries for Full Name, Address, Phone Number, Email, and donation amount (either direct donation or pledge). Additional options are to set up a check box for donaters to sign-up for receiving KOTM emails, or for volunteering.
b. When you create the form, you can set up the option for folks to either pledge a direct donation or to make a per-pin pledge. This is a fun way to get your friends and family involved (tell them that you're a terrible bowler and maybe they'll pledge a higher amount!!!). In Morgantown, friends and family of the bowlers pledged anywhere between 5 cents and $1 per pin that the bowler knocked down. Some bowlers even pledged a per-pin amount for their own bowling games.
3. Once the form is set up, copy the link to the form and send it out through the Facebook event page, your email, and any other means possible. Be sure to ask folks to pass it around.
4. At and after the event, collect the donations. Be sure to ask bowlers to bring their checkbooks to the event, and to make things easier, if any of their friends pledge a direct donation but can't make it to bowling, have the bowler collect those donations ahead of time and bring them to the event as well. For all per-pin pledges and uncollected donations, you will have to collect these after the event, by emailing or calling the bowling participant and having them collect and deliver the donations.
5. Send all donations to Keeper of the Mountains Foundation at 179 Summers St, Suite 234, Charleston, WV, 25301
Bowl for the Mountain Keepers: The Day of the Event
a. Sign-in sheet and pen as well as a bucket to collect the donations in.
b. Prizes for highest bowling score and for best costume (if you incorporate a costume competition into your event – this is lots of fun and easy to pull off).
c. A creative costume (if you have a costume contest)
2. Be sure to have someone serve as the "Keeper" of the event.
a. The Keeper will need to help make sure that everyone gets onto a lane, signs the sign-in sheet, and has a good time.
b. The Keeper will also need to stop bowling for 15 minutes and introduce the speaker(s).
c. The Keeper will also coordinate the voting process for best (and/or worst) costume, collect each person's "best game" score, and then hand out prizes for the winners.
d. At the end of the event, the Keeper will need to make sure that everyone pays for their games, and make sure all donations are collected. Remind the bowlers to collect their unpaid donations and pledges, and let them know where and how to submit donations they collect after the event.
e. Thank everyone for helping to stop Mountaintop Removal
