Children Learn Bowling at Cancer Camp

 Siegel teaches bowling for 16 years at a summer cancer camp for children and has 25 years of helping at the camp.                                     

The camp is funded by the Children’s Oncology Services, Inc., a Chicago charity. Siegel was assisted in this program by Lake Forest resident and camp counselor Fronzie Roemer. She said that when she was a little girl her mother was a counselor at the camp.

Siegel, who owns BLPromos, a full service promotional products company in Northbrook, arranged for the children to bowl for free at Lake Geneva Lanes.  The camp has about 300 children ages 5 to 19 who need special services for cancer treatment.

He said one of the things he has learned from these children is “worrying about what is going to happen in the future isn’t worth worrying about.”  He said all the children win a prize for their bowling skills and that after teaching them he often is giving hi-fives to the youngsters when they bowl a strike.

“The look on their faces when they bowl a strike is wonderful,” he said. There also is specialized equipment to help some of the youngsters bowl.

Siegel first volunteered to help the children a quarter century ago when he took them for rides on his boat which he docks at The Abbey Resort located at the lake. Later, Dr. Edward Baum, the former camp director, asked him to teach bowling to the children. Siegel is a member of the Professional Bowlers Association; he now competes on the senior bowling circuit when his work schedule allows it.