OK, so last night before league, my pro shop guy comes out to the lanes where I'm organizing the paperwork for the evening and plunks down a brand new Storm Big Hit. He says, "Let me donate this to the league to raise money to increase your prize fund." After I recovered my powers of speech (never has anyone offered anything extra to our league), I thanked him a dozen times and we figured out the best way to go about doing a ball give-away at the end of the season. When the president and vice-president showed up, I discussed it with them, and we all agreed to have a quick meeting before league so that everyone could vote on the change.
Here's the option we chose ... Each bowler puts $1 in the kitty each week for the rest of the short season. It would amount to a total of $10 per bowler, which would add $320 to our prize fund (almost increasing our fund by 25%). We gather the bowlers together, explain the gift of the ball and the proposed give-away, and take the vote.
One guy ... who just happens to be the same guy who cursed me out two weeks ago because I asked him to move his bag and street shoes out of the traffic area in the settee ... votes no. End of discussion. It's not unanimous, so the ball goes back to the pro shop and the whole league is in a funk because this punk jerk chose to prove that's exactly what he is.
At first I thought that maybe he and his wife just couldn't afford the extra cash each week. Then, as the evening went on, I watched and learned. The cash being spent by that team was amazing. Four pitchers of beer, two pitchers of soda, full over-priced snack bar meals for him and his wife, endless dollars to the toddler for the video arcade, trays of more over-priced snack bar goodies in game three. It wasn't that he couldn't afford the extra buck, it was just that he's a punk jerk.
Fortunately, we have a lot of gracious people on our other teams who took the time to genuinely express their appreciation to the pro shop operator for his generous offer. It makes me so angry that one person can so easily destroy a good thing that would have benefitted everyone. The only bright spot was that punk jerk's team lost all four points for the night.
I'm done venting now. Sadly, writing this didn't make me feel much better about the whole situation.
Deb
