Bowling Marathon to Raise Funds for Good Friday Appeal

A passion for Bowling and a desire to make a difference will be on show at ZONE BOWLING Frankston, Victoria, on April 2 as a 12-hour bowling marathon will raise funds for the annual Good Friday Appeal.

Long-time Tenpin Bowling Australia member Dr Chris Mesagno will use Bowling to help raise funds for the Royal Children’s Hospital Good Friday Appeal. On Good Friday, Chris, with a few junior bowling recruits (Seth Gray and Bill East), will be taking part in a 12-hour non-stop bowling marathon at Zone Bowling Frankston to raise funds for the appeal.

Mesagno, an associate professor of Exercise and Sport Psychology at Federation University Australia, has a long involvement with the sport.

Bowling since the age of 7 and competitively since 10, Mesagno would eventually bowl in the US college system for the University of Florida, where he was inducted into the Florida State Youth Bowling Hall of Fame in 1998 for his bowling achievements. Since being in Australia, Chris has participated in many tournaments whilst also playing a part in high-performance committees and providing sport psychology services to athletes.

2021 will be the third time Chris will be raising money for the Good Friday Appeal with his 12-hour bowling marathon (the bowling marathon was cancelled in 2020 due to COVID-19). In 2009 at age 33, he would raise $3,000 bowling 51 games in the 12 hours. In 2019, he would bowl 63 games and raised $3,500. Now, at age 45, Chris’s goal is to bowl 75 games and raise $5,000 for the Good Friday Appeal.

“It will be a difficult feat at my age to bowl 75 games in 12 hours, but I have been training in the gym and doing Park runs (running 5km) each Saturday to get ready for the challenge. I will need all my sport psychology (and mental toughness) training to reach my goal” said Mesagno.

Since 1931, the Good Friday Appeal has raised funds for The Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne. Over this time, funding has supported projects at the Hospital that have helped it become world leading.

The Good Friday Appeal can help the Hospital continue to provide world-class care to patients and their families by funding projects in four key areas:

• State of the art equipment and technology
• Ground-breaking research
• Education and training for staff development
• Patient and family centred care programs

“My family is lucky enough not to have used the Royal Children’s Hospital at all, but I know so many families who have needed to use their services,” explained Mesagno. “This year, I’m dedicating my 12-hour bowling marathon to one of the ZONE BOWLING Frankston employees who has a son who has had to use the Royal Children’s Hospital frequently”.

Those looking to donate in support of the initiative can choose to sponsor in a few different ways.

You can sponsor a flat rate or set a dollar/ cents amount for the number of games Chris and his recruits will bowl in the 12 hours. For example, if you sponsor at $1 per game and he/they bowl 75 games, you will be asked to give $75 to the Royal Children’s Hospital Good Friday Appeal.

The marathon begins at 9:00 am local time on April 2 (Good Friday) and continues until 9:00 pm. Anyone wanting to come down to Zone Bowling Frankston on Good Friday, the centre is donating a portion of the lineage to the Good Friday Appeal if you say that you came down in support of the 12-hour marathon.

Tenpin Bowling Australia supports Chris’s efforts in raising funds for the Good Friday Appeal.

Support Chris’s fundraiser by clicking here