ATCO Craft Night

One of the other weekly projects that Alpha Phi Omega does with ATCO is Craft Night every Tuesday at Rollerbowl. There is a group of five ladies who get together with three or four volunteers to make crafts and do other activities. This is a project that is fun and easygoing - as long as you have some semblance of creativity, you can help brainstorm ideas and join in the craft-making extravaganza.

At Rollerbowl, ATCO has plastic containers filled to the brim with colorful paper, beads of all colors and shapes, wire, paint, stickers, glitter and anything else you could possibly need. The main thing for volunteers to do is to pick a project to do and pull the supplies out so everyone can work on it. Most of the time the craft ladies are able to independently do the work, but volunteers are there to help if needed.

If there are extra supplies, volunteers are able to join in the fun and make their own crafts as well. I have a green piggy bank with jewels, a key chain that was made for me by one of my ATCO ladies, a tie-dyed shirt that I love and other knick-knacks around my apartment.

Tie-dying shirts was probably one of my favorite projects to work on. For this craft, we went to Passionworks Studio and set up the supplies there because we did not want to get dye and such all over the bowling alley. We arranged to have a couple extra volunteers at the project and a few more ATCO ladies came to tie-dye (some of them do not appreciate the amount of noise at Rollerbowl). We all got to hang out, tie-dye and talk. The ladies were sharing their techniques while we got everything together and helped them dye their shirts individually. Jeff Bierlein who runs most of the ATCO programs came as well and took the shirts until they could dry and returned them the next week.


ATCO Craft Night is a good opportunity to be creative and is mainly a bonding experience and an easy way to socialize for an hour every Tuesday afternoon.

Related Web sites

Most of the service projects I have talked about have related Web sites. I included a link to the St. Bernard Project and this is definitely one that is worth visiting if you are interested in going to New Orleans to help rebuild. Liz McCartney, the founder of the St. Bernard Project, recently won the CNN Hero of the Year award for all the work she has done to help rebuild. There are stories about all the families they have helped, newspaper articles that have mentioned the project and much more.

Liz McCartney and our group from Winter 08

The St. Bernard Project works to get families who are especially in need back into their homes. This usually includes elderly homeowners and single parents. Visit this site if you are willing to donate time or money to this nonprofit organization.

Big Brothers Big Sisters Athens also has a website that contains information about volunteering and fundraisers that are being put on to benefit BBBS. This site is http://www.bbbsathens.org/.

ATCO has a website about the different programs they host for employing adults with disabilities and how you can get involved. It also lists the phone number and office hours if you are interested in contacting them. http://atcoinc.org/

ATCO Bowling

The crash of pins, cheers, victory dances. High fives all around, all except for one person who has two thumbs way down. "Paul! You're on my team! You're supposed to be happy when I get pins down!" Paul chuckles, hands his respirator tank to me and we grab his bowling ball so he can knock down some pins of his own.

Paul has Down's syndrome and has been on my ATCO bowling team all year, along with Brian, Dawn and Blair, a fellow APhiOer. League bowling is every Wednesday from 5 pm until 7 pm at Rollerbowl at the end of Palmer St. We play two games against a different team each week. At the end of the quarter, the points are totaled and prizes are awarded to the best team, individual player, most improved, etc. For our team, the motto is "It's pins!" We have been described as the Cincinnati Bengals of bowling. Some days we're awesome, other days we're lucky if anyone breaks 100...

Many of the ATCO bowlers are in wheelchairs and require the use of a ramp to get the ball down the alley. Blair and I set up the ramp for Brian, grab the heaviest ball at Rollerbowl and set it up just right. Once you find the sweet spot, you can get a strike every time you put the ball on the ramp. The holes have to be pointing in just the right way and the ramp has to be just left of center. Last quarter Brian got the highest score for the season after we worked together to get him a whopping 6 strikes (two turkeys!) in one game.
Here is an example of bowling with a ramp (usually volunteers hold the ramp steady and put the ball in place. If the bowler needs extra help, we lift their hand so they can touch the ball so it rolls down the ramp and alley)



Hanging out with my friends at league bowling is a cathartic experience. You get to take a step away from homework, work and useless worries and just enjoy the time. Everyone has their silly moments and frustrations, but it can all be turned around with the next roll of the ball just by knocking down a few more pins. Working with people who have mental and/or physical disabilities can be intimidating if you've never done it before, but all you have to do is recognize that we're all people who enjoy attention and like to be part of a group. Once you realize this, you can relate to anyone (handicapped or not). It's all about stepping outside of your bubble!

League bowlers or league helpers are constantly in demand. An extra pair of hands to set up the ramps, grab the bowling balls or even to just sit and chat while everyone else is bowling is always appreciated. Jeff Bierlein is in charge of ATCO and is always looking for more help. His e-mail address is ac317@seorf.ohiou.edu.