North Bowl and NLNA Team up for the Annual Winterfest

North Bowl and NLNA Team up for the Annual Winterfest

North Bowl

The Northern Liberties Neighborhood Association (NLNA) slipped on their bowling shoes this past Sunday afternoon, laced up with all of their good friends and admirers, and bowled a really good game at their Annual Winter Fest Fundraiser held at North Bowl in Northern Liberties.  I do not know how much money was ultimately raised for the community but the way I was keeping score, this was a perfect game which, by the way, is a score of 300 for those of you who do not play the pins. Fundraisers are very difficult for non profit organizations these days and this one was no lucky strike. So many people participated for a great cause and the afternoon played out as smooth and polished as the pine floors.

If you were not there, here is what you missed. There was flagrant and open socializing with an abundance of giggles and frequent outbursts of hysterical laughter, mostly coming from Matt Ruben and Frank Hyder. There was alley to alley entertainment that engaged every age from infant to infinity. There was a seemingly endless cornucopia of delicious food and drink of which the partaking was shamelessly delightful. There was simply no escaping the multiple floors of fun and games that were enjoyed with reckless abandon by everyone. There was even a flat screen tv for practically every inquiring eye to keep up with the Olympic Hockey competition between the US and Canada. However, it was the servers who were the real  Olympians making all of the food appear and the plates disappear, a performance worthy of a Gold Metal.  Everyone was grooving to the constant flow of music from the DJ booth manned by DJ Frosty.

Christopher Richetti, a recent addition to the Northern Liberties Zoning committee and a dazzling bowler, zeroed in on what the fundraiser really accomplished. Christopher was surprised by the large turnout and saw a lot of familiar faces.

"It was a good mixed crowd with a lot of families, local sponsors, and volunteers. This event revealed all of the things that you want to see in a neighborhood like Northern Liberties. It really showed a snapshot of the neighborhood as a whole."

Some of the sponsors for the fundraiser generously offered raffle prizes whose names included many of our neighborhood favorites such as Voila Home Design, Iron Works Gym, Liberties Restaurant and Bar, One Shot Coffee, Dos Segundos, City Planter , Silk City, Ortliebs, Honeys, Full Plate, Chez Bow Wow, Rustica, and North 3rd Restaurant.

There were some strikes, there were a couple of spares and perhaps even a few gutter balls though from my perspective the entire neighborhood was ultimately the winner.  And for the folks who have not sunk their thumb and forefingers into 8 pounds of solid urethane (that is what bowing balls are made of these days) don't fret, North Bowl is open 7 days a week with plenty of lanes, 21,000 square feet offering both plenty of bowling and a nightlife haven.

Our article was also posted in The Spirit Newspapers.