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John's usual--
Another season of league bowling is 100% in the books at Kenilee Lanes. Norwalk High School bowling ended in February and Kenilee's final day of Open Bowling was this past Monday, April 8th. Kenilee is open for private rentals all summer, but it's much slower-- just private parties like Pleasant Elementary classes in May, graduation parties in June, etc. There's still lots of maintenance to do over the summer-- but the weekly grind of it is done until September. I really appreciate all the bowlers, the CLI staff, and the Firelands Local Employees that worked diligently to keep this Kenilee community business running this year, Kenilee Lanes contributed more than $100,000 toward CLI programs over the past 3 years.
CLI's investment in Kenilee has done more than just provide income to support our other expenses. It's also been a good social connection platform for CLI & our clients. In a world where face-to-face social venues are dwindling, bowling continues to be an affordable fun IRL space. As someone who's spent 30+ years getting annual universal precautions training, I'm still a bit rattled by all high-fiving and just in general touching every shared surface available en route to using your hands to put food directly into your mouth. But-- it's been neat to watch the CLI-sponsored teams compete in 4 different leagues this year. It's shown the utility of having the same small number of individuals show up every week with the same individual staff for 26+ weeks-- even if it meant staff had to work on a holiday. The reality of real community integrated services is that meaningful opportunities happen when people aren't working. The litmus test of community inclusion is whether people miss you when you aren't there. I can tell you that I am constantly fielding questions from other bowlers and then subsequently explaining confidentiality restrictions. It was heartwarming how much people got invested in how well someone bowled, whether they picked up a spare or beat their average.
That being said, I think this was my last season as the defacto Kenilee Lanes Bowling Center Manager. My wife has been very patient with my accidental side-hustle & all the nights & weekends over the past 4+ years. We've just hired Don Kuhlman to manage Kenilee Lanes' next season. We'll post more about Don in a later newsletter. Don has a lot of personal service experience as well as bar & restaurant experience. Both of these will be important, since April through August he will be pulled into regular CLI operations (because the bowling alley is super slow during spring & summer)-- but then in the fall & winter, his time will be almost 100% devoted to all things Kenilee.
I hope everyone enjoyed the eclipse this past Monday. In hindsight we probably should have stayed open as the roads were super clear Monday afternoon. However, I know that CLI staff really appreciated being able to enjoy the event with their families. It's all 5 day work weeks all the way to Memorial Day, so brace yourself.
Have a great week. Fingers crossed for warmer weather. I really enjoyed the 70+ degrees on Sunday!S
John
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