May 29: Seeds of Literacy Bowl-a-Thon

Bowling has one thing in common with any profile of a population: statistics. Consider a brief portrait of literacy in Cleveland: According to Seeds of Literacy (which got its numbers from the Center for Urban Poverty and Social Change at the Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences, Case Western Reserve University), 69 percent of Cleveland residents are functionally illiterate, which is defined as reading on a 4th to 6th grade level. Such a person may struggle to read a bus schedule or a job application. Further, some Cleveland neighborhoods have illiteracy rates as high as 95 percent. Seeds of Literacy combats those numbers with free, one-to-one tutoring in basic education and GED testing to adults in Cuyahoga County. You can support their effort at their first Bowl-A-Thon Friday, May 29. (You’ve got to register and get your pledge sheet by May 22.) You get three hours of non-competitive bowling, shoe rental, food, music, door prizes and a t-shirt. It’s from 8 to 11 p.m. May 29 at Fairview Lanes (21847 Lorain Road, Fairview Park, 216.661.7950, ext. 11.) $25. — Michael Gill