* The Shrine Bowl is played to benefit the Greenville (SC) Unit Shriners Hospital for Children and 21 other Shriners Hospitals across the nation. Last year’s game receipts and temple contributions raised $1.1 million. Since the first Shrine Bowl in 1937, over $51 million has been raised for Shriners Hospitals.
* The Shrine Bowl of the Carolinas, is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.
* A Carolinas’ tradition of overflowing generosity and unequaled athletic excellence, the annual Shrine Bowl game is the nation’s oldest and most prestigious high school football all-star game in America.
* Played the third weekend in December, the game culminates the fund-raising efforts of the Shriners five Shrine Temples. In the game’s first year (1937), $2,500 was donated to the hospital. That figure has grown to more than $1.1 million annually with a total of over $51 million raised during the past 65 years.
* Players, selected by the Shrine Bowl coaches, are announced in October. Each team has 46 players. Shriners are not involved in player selection.
*Shrine Bowl coaches for 2002 are (see attached list). Each state will have a head coach, seven assistant coaches. Coaches are selected by the Shrine Bowl athletic director upon the recommendation of the NC and SC high school associations and high school football coaches associations.
* There are nearly 26,000 Shriners in the Carolinas representing Omar Temple, Charleston; Sudan Temple, New Bern; Hejaz Temple, Greenville; Jamil Temple, Columbia; and Amran Temple, Raleigh.
* The 66th annual Shrine Bowl game, the nation’s premier high school all-star football game, will be played on Saturday, December 21, 2002 in Rock Hill District Three Stadium, corner of Constitution and Cherry Street, Rock Hill, South Carolina, a new look, more pageantry, more fun and more excitement than ever before. The Shrine Bowl game will kick-off at 1:00 p.m. Our goal is to maximize the net proceeds that are sent to the Shriners Hospital for Children in Greenville, South Carolina.
* The Shrine Bowl is actively seeking the advice and counsel of the five Illustrious Potentates and their counterparts in planning for the 2002 program.
* The Shrine Bowl will also become more visible in the Carolinas on a year-round basis - especially at Temple functions even at the club and unit level. Shrine Bowl representatives have volunteered to join you for fellowship and an exchange of ideas and concerns at any time. The Shrine Bowl wants to help you promote your activities, and in turn, needs your help with promoting the game in your communities.
* Besides the healing, lifesaving benefits the game gives the tiny patients at the Shriners hospitals, the game touches the lives of the participating coaches and players. Each year the teams travel to the Greenville, SC Shriners Hospital, where the athletes and coaches give presents and play with the children, many of whom have no arms or legs or are burned over large portions of their bodies. Many athletes have broken down in tears, touched by the courage, determination and discipline of these hurting, loving children.
* The Shrine Bowl is an act of love given by the Shriners of the Carolinas to the children at the hospital. The Shrine Bowl of the Carolinas, is the umbrella agency under which the game operates. More than 400 volunteers devote over 200,000 hours annually in staging the game and it’s related fund-raising events.
* The shrine bowl began in 1937 based on the model of the Shrine East/West game in San Francisco. However, the game took on a new slant in the Carolinas. Instead of being a college all-star game, it would become the nation's first high school all-star game. Under the leadership and inspiration of Hendrix Palmer, a Charlotte, NC fire chief, the six (four at that time) Carolinas’ Shrine Temples staged the first game on December 4, 1937. That inaugural game attracted 5,500 spectators, many of whom paid $1 to attend. Now the game is sponsored by the five Shrine Headquarters, Omar, Sudan, Hejaz, Jamil and Amran.
* The Shrine Bowl and its tremendous effect on the lives of patients and participants are measured by financial contribution and evaluation/feedback from participants and volunteers. As previously mentioned, the increased growth and direct contributions over the years is reflected as follows:
1940 |
2,750.00 |
1950 |
87,000.00 |
1960 |
150,000.00 |
1970 |
500,000.00 |
1980 |
1,550,000.00 |
1990 |
2,146,000.00 |
2000 |
2,393,000.64 |
|
* The evaluation of our particular event can only be measured by the fact that the Shrine Bowl of the Carolinas and the five sponsoring Temples has always led the Shrine of North America in contributions to our hospital programs. Late in 1989, a new addition was dedicated to the hospital in Greenville, SC doubling the size and completely replacing a unit that had been in existence for fifty two years.
* Based on evaluation and feedback, several major innovations have taken place since the game began in 1937. Our hospitals have not only continued to be the finest treatment centers for youngsters with orthopedic and burn problems, but have turned into the most advanced state-of-the-art research and teaching facilities in the world. They have also expanded into other targeted area where there was, and continues to be, a real need, such as juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, muscular dystrophy and expanded research in the area of Marfan syndrome.
* A look at the Shriners Hospital for Children in Greenville, SC conveys the tremendous impact the Shrine Bowl has on the lives of tiny patients.
The Greenville Unit personnel handles over 15,000 outpatient clinic visits and over 15,500 physical therapy visits annually. A typical patient stays about13 days for treatment of a wide variety of deformities to bones, muscles and joints. The Temple donation goes a long way in underwriting the cost of many of these visits.
The cost of the care and treatment to the tiny patients family has no charge, the drugs and continued therapy till the age of eighteen are no charge, the transportation costs to and from the hospital and family accommodation while at the hospital are absolutely no charge.
* The Shrine Bowl can, and has been, replicated or adapted by every Shrine Temple in the country that promotes an athletic event (at last count - 42). We have also counseled many civic and fraternal organizations throughout the country that have heard about the Shrine Bowl and wanted to promote an athletic event themselves. We have held seminars, hosted visiting delegations, and help write operating procedures for many of the successful Shrine athletic events around the country. |
