Pins topple at the Oncenter as women’s bowling tournament begins
Syracuse (WSYR-TV) – For the next 88 days, Syracuse will be home to thousands of female bowlers taking part in the U.S. Bowling Congress Women’s Championships. The event got underway Thursday with a simultaneous roll down each of the 48 lanes specially built in the Oncenter.
The event is expected to bring about 30,000 total bowlers to the area through July. It is also expected to inject $40 million to the local economy.
With so many people stopping by during the tournament, the squeeze is on at hotels.
Vicki Larson, for example, just rolled into town with a team of six for the weekend. She says she’s learned to book hotel rooms far in advance, after all her years of traveling to tournaments. “I usally book in September,” she said.
Over the next three months, the bowlers are expected to spend 54,000 nights in hotel rooms that might have otherwise been empty.
“We’ll have at least 5,000 just at our hotel alone. It’s huge,” said Sandy Baker of the Crowne Plaza hotel. “We are the closest hotel to the Oncenter and we are so excited.”
Hotels outside the City are also picking up some extra business. The brand new Staybridge Suites in Liverpool opened Thursday, just in time for the tournament.
“Most of the time you open up a new hotel and you don’t have any business for a couple of weeks, but we started out well and the bowling tournament has been a big help to us,” said Jim Gallagher.
The rooms are going to be even more difficult to grab during graduation weekend.
“Graduation weekend is always a big weekend for the entire community but on top of the bowling tournament. It’s probably going to be one of the best weeks we ever had here,” Gallagher said.
The transformation of the Oncenter into a world-class bowling center took about a month and cost about $2 million. In addition to 48 meticulously leveled lanes, a video screen was built that spans the entire length of the setup.
In all, there is enough wood used for the lanes, stands and other structures to build five, three-bedroom homes. Underneath runs six miles of wiring.
Each day until July 3, pins will topple from about 7:00 a.m. through midnight. In late April, ESPN will be in Syracuse to televise the finals for the professionals who will be competing.
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Reese Witherspoon Weds Jim Toth, Jake Gyllenhaal Goes Bowling
Reese Witherspoon has officially become a married woman once again. Representative for the “Water for Elephants” actress confirmed that she has tied the knot with her entertainment agent fiance, Jim Toth, on Saturday evening, March 26 in a 20-minute private ceremony at her ranch estate in Ojai, California.
35-year-old Reese walked down the aisle to “Here Comes the Bride”, while 40-year-old Jim arrived to the processional music of “Tennessee Waltz”. The nuptials, which saw the couple exchanging wedding bands designed by jeweler William Goldberg, was officiated by Reverend Jimmy Bartz, Us Magazine reported.
People Magazine additionally detailed that the ceremony started a bit late and was preceded with a pre-wedding cocktail hour. Reese and Jim swapped vows in front of her children, Ava and Deacon, as well as about 100 guests, that included Renee Zellweger, Alyssa Milano, Tobey Maguire, Salma Hayek and Robert Downey Jr. with his wife Susan.
Meanwhile, Reese’s ex-boyfriend Jake Gyllenhaal spent his Saturday evening bowling. The “Love and Other Drugs” actor was spotted with Maroon 5 singer Adam Levine and a group of friends at the Spare Room in Los Angeles. A witness told Us Magazine “They looked really into it and seemed really relaxed. As the game progressed, the guys started high-fiving each other; at one point Jake did what looked like a little dance after bowling a spare.”
During the outing, the 30-year-old was also seen chatting up a few ladies. After being spotted joking with a brunette, he reportedly spent time with Swedish model Mini Anden at around 1 A.M. “He put his hand on her back, trying to convince her to bowl with them and being really sweet,” spilled the witness. “He looked like he was trying to give her a lesson on bowling. He seemed to want to show off a little bit.”
http://www.aceshowbiz.com/news/view/00039294.html
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Wii bowling competition gets seniors rolling
By Jeanie Mayer Sun-Times Media Apr 1, 2011 09:21AM
There they are, every Monday and Wednesday afternoon, teams of seniors rolling strikes and adding up “turkeys” at Heritage Woods Assisted Living Center.
The Wii bowling competition rolls around each year through the activities designed to highlight Supportive Living Week (April 24-30 this year).
Gracie Nebel, Heritage Woods administrator, said the seniors have a good shot at making it to the state competition this year, which will be held in Springfield.
The four-member teams — with bowlers ages 71 to 95 —are in competition that lasts eight weeks. Scores are submitted each week to the Affordable Assisted Living Coalition, which is administering the program.
Nebel said the teams are being sponsored by Preferred Home Health Agency. Thus, the teams have selected names that reflect their sponsor. The Preferred Pins team practices Monday afternoons, while the Wii Prefer Strikes team puts in its time on Wednesdays.
“One of our teams is in the top three in the state,” Nebel said. “If they win, we will get them to Springfield for the final competition.”
Supportive Living Week has a theme that goes further than bowling — it crosses over into art as well. The theme this year is Art Is Ageless, and residents at the center are entering submissions that include an acrostic poem, paintings and a cross-stitch craft. If chosen, these submissions will go on to the statewide competition as well.
“My goal here is to get our residents to realize, yes, being here benefits their safety, but their lives can be so much richer through the experiences they can be a part of,” she said. “When you move into Heritage Woods, life is only just beginning.”
To that end, Nebel said residents have started several clubs that help support their interests, such as theater, glee, baking and knitting.
“One of my goals has been to be more serving of the community — to help people outside our scope,” Nebel said. “Our residents would like to start making booties and blankets for local pediatric units. The glee and theater clubs can go into nursing homes and perform. There are so many things [our residents] can learn to do. We are still opening doors [of opportunity] for people.”