by Michael Quinn, Marketing Team Co-Lead

Rock beat scissors in a best-of-five rock, paper, scissors shootout to decide the sixth annual Chill-N-Bowl. Team captains Kyle Herman of Kyle Herman Agency Aces and Theresa Getzlaff of First Timers faced off to see who would be crowned the night’s Grand Champion. The Grand Champion is determined by a combined average of the team’s chili and bowling scores. This year, those scores resulted in a tie. With a two-to-one lead going into the fourth hand, Herman would deal the winning blow, taking home the trophy for the second time in the event’s six-year history.

History

The Chill-N-Bowl was started by the Entrepreneur Team in 2009 and serves as the only fundraiser for the Bismarck-Mandan Young Professionals Network. Since 2010, the organizers have partnered with a local charity. The event includes a chili cook-off, a bowling tournament and fundraising activities. Jim Mellon, owner of Midway Lanes in Mandan, donates half of the alley’s lanes each year for this event.

A Sellout Crowd

This year’s 26 team spots sold out for the first time in history, making it the largest Chill-N-Bowl turnout ever. Over 110 people attended, including one team on a waiting list and several people who just showed up to watch.

People began pouring into the venue around 4pm with their crocks and costumes. The Chill-N-Bowl committee members frantically searched for more extension cords and outlets to handle the 26 pots of chili! (27 to be exact, one chili enthusiast brought a pot even though he wasn’t on a team).

The costumes get better every year according to long-time Chill-N-Bowl participants. This year, oddly enough, there were two teams dressed as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and another two as the Flintstones. Great minds think alike. Some of the other costumes included men in dresses (Team Fowlattitude), Rosie and the Riveters, and the H.B.I. (Herman Bureau of Investigation) whose purpose was to investigate bowling fraud (referring to two-time winner and always top finisher Kyle Herman and his team).

Featured Charity

Tim Flagstad, winner of the 50/50 for CDHS

This year, the Chill-N-Bowl partnered with the Central Dakota Humane Society (CDHS), which is also the YPN’s featured charity for the year. The network split the earnings from the team registration fees and they provided several other fundraising activities including a 50/50 raffle, silent auction, and more. The lucky winner of the 50/50 raffle was Tim Flagstad from Team Footbowlers. The most unique thing might have been the “cats vs. dogs” jugs where people could drop money for the pet that they preferred most. Cats won with a last minute donation by one cat-lover. In total, the YPN was able to raise around $2,000 for the featured charity, another record in Chill-N-Bowl history.

Stay tuned in the upcoming weeks for the complete list of bowling and chili scores along with the final numbers raised for the YPN and CDHS.

Here are the winners from each category:

Best Chili
Red Hot Chili Bowlers
(April Larsen, Tiffany Thrasher, Brittany Roe & Cole Rueb)

Best Bowling
Enlightening Strikes
(Don Lapp, Josh Rader, Dustin Leingang & Eric Miller)

Most Creative Team Name
I Can’t Believe It’s Not Gutter
(Alayna Gottsman, Andrew Gottsman, Barry Kinnischtzke & Sam Welch)

Team Spirit Award
Snowcones
(Paul Schmidt, Eric Eberle, Scott Ternes & Mike Mulloy)

GRAND CHAMPION Traveling Trophy Winner
Kyle Herman Agency Aces
(Kyle Herman, Mike Dewald, Ryan Pfleger & Patrick Hart)