So high was the demand to participate in the fourth annual Lawn Summer Nights charity lawn bowling tournament that organizers added a special pop-up event this past Saturday, at the Elmdale Lawn Bowling Club.
It was a luau theme. That meant many bowlers arrived in swishy grass skirts, screaming-loud Aloha shirts and colourful leis around their necks. Their sunscreen was appropriately scented: coconut.
The event was held in addition to the regular Lawn Bowling Nights tournament taking place at the club each Wednesday throughout the month of July. It’s sold-out but you can buy $10 tickets to come out and watch.
From left, Yvonne Langen, Ryan Crompton, Erin Chezick and Tim MacDonald at the Elmdale Lawn Bowling Cub on Saturday, June 18, 2016, for the Lawn Summer Nights Ottawa Pop Up, benefiting Cystic Fibrosis.
The fundraiser for Cystic Fibrosis is being held in cities across the country, attracting a young professional crowd out for a relaxing night on the greens. Its proceeds are helping researchers to find a cure for CF, a genetic disease that progresses over time, attacking the lungs and digestive systems. There are about 4,200 children and adults in Canada living with the disease.
Advances are being made with new drugs, and the median age of survival has risen to 51.8, the crowd heard.
Jessica Meranger gets ready to throw her bowl down the green at the Elmdale Lawn Bowling Cub on Saturday, June 18, 2016, for the Lawn Summer Nights Ottawa Pop Up, benefiting Cystic Fibrosis.
From left, Mackenzie King, Michael Griffiths, Peter Murphy and Jason Fleck at the Elmdale Lawn Bowling Cub on Saturday, June 18, 2016, for the Lawn Summer Nights Ottawa Pop Up, benefiting Cystic Fibrosis.
“We’re doing well but we’re not doing well enough,” said Helen Meinzinger, president of the CF’s Ottawa chapter, a member of the RCMP and the mother of a six-year-old son with cystic fibrosis. “There are still people dying from this disease. In May, we lost a 20-year old in this community to this disease. A summer ago, we lost three young ladies, in their 20s, to this disease.
“I don’t want to lose my son to this disease.”
From left, Emily Gingras, Carrie Kennedy,Shelagh Connolly and Ali Duret at the Elmdale Lawn Bowling Cub on Saturday, June 18, 2016, for the Lawn Summer Nights Ottawa Pop Up, benefiting Cystic Fibrosis.
Cystic Fibrosis Ottawa chapter president Helen Meinzinger addresses participants of the Lawn Summer Nights Ottawa Pop Up.
From left, Susan Thurston, Jessica Wright, Sarah Wright and Madelaine Thurston at the Elmdale Lawn Bowling Cub on Saturday, June 18, 2016, for the Lawn Summer Nights Ottawa Pop Up, benefiting Cystic Fibrosis.
From left, Malaika Njau, Tegan MacKay, Matt Niizeki and Katherine Atkinson at the Elmdale Lawn Bowling Cub on Saturday, June 18, 2016, for the Lawn Summer Nights Ottawa Pop Up, benefiting Cystic Fibrosis.
Kelsey Lett, seen ringing the bell to open a Lawn Summer Nights tournament in 2015, has lived with cystic fibrosis for 24 years, and says, ‘I feel like I’ve already seen the good, the bad and the terrible. My daily fear: going into the hospital and never coming out.’
