Lawn bowling tournament in Kitchener raises funds for Kidney Foundation of Canada

A special sporting event held in Kitchener on Saturday drew in around 100 lawn bowlers and spectators, all united by a common cause: supporting those affected by kidney disease.

“We're here today for the second annual Kidney Bowl,” said Leigh-Anne Quinn with the Waterloo-Wellington chapter of the Kidney Foundation of Canada. “It's an open triples tournament which welcomes lawn bowlers to come out and to bowl for a great cause, which is the Kidney Foundation of Canada.”

The second annual Kidney Bowl took place at Heritage Greens Lawn Bowling Club which included a tournament of three 12-end games of open triples. The day also featured a clothes drive, where people donated everything from socks and belts to hats and jackets to help those living with kidney disease.

For Kitchener resident and international lawn bowler Chris Stadnyk, the event hit close to home.

“On the 23rd of December, I'm getting rushed to the hospital in 2014 and found out then that I was actually suffering from kidney failure. If it wasn't for my small stroke, I wouldn’t have known and things could have turned out bad,” he told CTV News Saturday.

It would be years of hospital visits and dialysis treatments before Stadnyk received the phone call that would change his life.

“In January of 2023, I received my very own kidney transplant. When you finally get the call that it's your turn, I can't even describe the feeling. It was like, this is happening, and it's happening now. And a day and a half later, you wake up and you have a brand new kidney.”

This year's event was built on the momentum of last year's inaugural fundraiser which raised over $6,000. This year, the event raised $4,970.

“So for me, it was a way to give back something I know how to do, which is lawn bowling,” Stadnyk said.

“It's fantastic to have so many people here,” said president of Heritage Greens Lawn Bowling Club, Fred Clark. “About 80 people are playing. We got about 25 volunteers here. We filled the whole truck of clothes for the kidney drive. We got 150 members and probably 100 of them brought in clothes last week for us.”

According to the foundation, one in 10 Canadians are being impacted by kidney disease and over 12,000 people are currently receiving dialysis treatment.

“73 per cent of people waiting for an organ donation in Canada are waiting for a kidney. So that's a huge number and so a lot of what we do at the Kidney Foundation is raise awareness as well as we want people to know the risks of kidney disease,” Quinn said.

Heritage Greens, along with the local chapter of the Kidney Foundation of Canada, plans to further its mission to improve kidney health and save lives.

“Giving back to [the] community, I think, is probably the best part of this event. Sharing the game and our resources to help others… we'll continue this tradition,” Clark said.