By Carmen Banta, E-Team Co-Lead

The YP Network met and surpassed all expectations for the seventh annual Chill-N-Bowl, selling out for the second consecutive year! We had a total of 26 teams, 104 bowlers, 26 crockpots and countless crazy costumes! We raised more than $1,500 for our own organization and over $2,000 for our Charity Partner – Special Olympics North Dakota – Bismarck.

Creative team names and themes were the talk of the evening, as this has become a large component of the event. Bowlers wore everything from a monkey suit to suits and ties.

Jim Mellon, owner of Midway Lanes, and his wife Rhonda judged two categories – Best Team Name and Best Team Spirit.

Team ‘Ebowla’ took home the award for Best Team Name.

Team ‘Ebowla’ – Sam Welch, Steve Wahler, Matt Schaible & Bill Zidon

Best Team Spirit was awarded to the ‘Fruit Bowlers,’ who, oddly enough, also went home with an honorary award for lowest chili score.

Fruit Bowlers – Michelle Steiner, Shane Steiner, Rachael Nelson & Tim Flagstad

Chili scores were calculated through a combined average score based on participants’ rankings. Participants were divided into three groups, each judging only eight or nine chilies, ranking each on a scale from one to five.

The award for Best Chili went to the ‘Turkey Hunters.’ Their average chili score was 3.725 out of 5.

Turkey Bowlers – Alayna Gottsman, Karali Oradei, April Geffre & Barry Kinnischtzke

The award for Highest Bowling Score went to ‘Team KLJ.’

The coveted Grand Champion trophy is awarded based on a combined average of chili and bowling scores. This year’s award went to ‘Team KLJ!’

Team KLJ – Chris Horner, James Kiedrowski, Joe Lucht & Ed Brodmarkle

Chill-N-Bowl is the largest fundraiser for the Bismarck-Mandan Young Professionals Network. Since 2010, the YPN has donated a portion of the proceeds to a charitable organization, this year being Special Olympics North Dakota – Bismarck. Along with those proceeds, athletes and volunteers from the Special Olympics collected funds for a 50/50 raffle, taking in an additional $900. Raffle winners Stacey Thomas (E-Team) and Michael Quinn (Marketing Team) donated all or part of their winnings back to Special Olympics.

Thanks to everyone who came out for the event, those who gave generously to the Special Olympics, and Jim Mellon of Midway Lanes, for making this year’s Chill-N-Bowl another wildly successful event! We look forward to seeing you all again next year!

Final bowling and chili rankings are listed below or by clicking here.