By David Slone
Times-Union
WARSAW — Bowling Against Bullying returns Saturday and founder Shaun Mudd hopes people will come out for an afternoon of free bowling, pizza and soda and have a good time.
“Just come and have fun. Have a good time. Of course, I’ll be there. Come talk to me. Please, come talk to me. I love it when people talk to me. I have people who come every year. That always makes me feel good. It makes me feel like what I’m doing, what people are doing, is something worthwhile,” he said.
The event is from noon to 3 p.m. Saturday, at The Bowling Alley, 1535 N. Detroit St., Warsaw.
In 2017, Mudd found out about a student who was being bullied at a local school. Touched by the student’s story, he wanted to do something special for him and other bullied students. It was supposed to have been a one-time thing when he and a friend gathered door prizes and paid for food and lanes at The Bowling Alley. It became an annual event and a nonprofit. It’s been made possible thanks to donations.
There won’t be anything different this year than last year, he said, but he encouraged people to arrive early.
“There’s a lot of lanes, but there’s also a lot of people, so make sure you get a bowling spot. Make sure you get a lane,” Mudd said.
There will be new T-shirts handed out this year, as well as the Bowling Against Bullying drawstring bags, stress balls and a pencil.
“I look forward to it every year. Every year it’s – I just enjoy it,” he stated.
Renea Salyer, executive director for Inspire Indiana Inc., will have a table set up about her organization.
A few years ago, Mudd was able to start up a scholarship for students who have been bullied. He said he got a statement the other day and learned the scholarship has $41,000 in it. He still has to talk to the Kosciusko County Community Foundation about it, but he said if it reaches $50,000, it would be awesome if the scholarship could be split to provide two scholarships.
“We gave away our second one this past end of school year to a Tippecanoe Valley student, Lindsey Petersen. So, that was cool. I got to give it to a Valley student,” said Mudd, who has served as a Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Office school resource officer at Valley.
“I was definitely surprised how fast it got to $25,000. I was planning like dinners, some kind of fundraiser. And then, all of a sudden I get a statement and there’s $26,000 in there. I said, ‘What?!’ And now there’s $41,000. So, people keep on donating, so it’s just amazing,” he said.
When Mudd does different talks to groups, like the Warsaw Breakfast Optimists, he continues to get people of various ages come up to him and tell him how they were bullied in school.
“Bullying makes an impact, both on the person getting bullied and the person doing the bullying. It makes life-long impacts. Studies have shown it extends past their school years into their adulthood,” Mudd said.
At Camp HERO on Thursday, Mudd was scheduled to talk to the campers about bullying and plans to share a few real stories he has found.
“I find that if you use actual kids’ stories … it’s pretty powerful,” he said.
Mudd regularly updates the Bowling Against Bullying Facebook page. This past school year, he started doing Pink Tie Tuesdays.
“So a kid wore a shirt to school that said, ‘Real Men Wear Pink,’ and some kid called him gay, and so he told me about it. I was like, ‘I have pink ties. I’ll wear a pink tie.’ And, I got the idea of why not have Pink Tie Tuesdays, and just posted videos on my Facebook page, talking about bullying. So I’ve gotten into so many different areas of it,” Mudd recalled.
Videos of Pink Tie Tuesdays can be found on Mudd’s personal Facebook page, as well as the Bowling Against Bullying Facebook page and Instagram account.
“I’m still surprised how many people see it. I mark it as public so everybody can see it, but I’m still surprised how many people will see it and talk about it,” he said.
