By Leah Sander
InkFreeNews

WARSAW — Once again, there will be free food and activities at a local event aiming to combat bullying.

Bowling Against Bullying returns noon to 3 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 2, to The Bowling Alley, 1535 N. Detroit St., Warsaw.

Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Office Deputy and Tippecanoe Valley School Corp. Student Resource Officer Shaun Mudd started it to help kids’ self-esteem.

“I continue doing it because the kids love it, and I love doing it,” he said. “I believe that it helps kids to know that there is someone else out there, besides their parents, telling them that they matter.”

Mudd noted everybody is welcome at the event, “with priority on the kids.”

“Everybody gets to eat for free, and every kid gets a prize,” he said. “The prizes are purchased by myself. That is made possible by all the donors.”

He added donors also pay for bikes, which should be going to kids of all ages.

There will be bowling, of course, along with arcade games.

The event also includes several speakers: Rachel Van Alstine with the Parent Coalition for Child Safety and Wellness and Aaron and Nicole Ball with Rio’s Rainbow. Mudd said the Balls’ daughter Rio killed herself after others bullied her for her alopecia.

Mudd is assisted with putting on the event by Kosciusko Cares Youth Services, with other volunteers also helping out.

“None of this would be possible without this community behind me,” he said. “I had an accidental idea that has blossomed into something beyond anything I could have imagined because of this community.”

Connected to Bowling Against Bullying, Mudd has created a scholarship through a fund at the Kosciusko County Community Foundation, which is given out to a student who’s experienced bullying.

The first scholarship was given out this year. To give for the Bowling Against Bullying RISE UP! Scholarship Fund, people may click here.