KSHB 41 News anchor Lindsay Shively offers coverage on a wide variety of topics, including stories of interest to consumers. She learned about this story as part of her recent coverage of the KSHB 41 Fill the Fridge food donation drive. Reach out to Linsday via email.
Inside Ward Parkway Lanes, behind the bowlers, and through the door of Custom Bowling Services, you'll find Bob Covey.
"I've been here about 25 and a half years," said Covey. He has had his business Custom Bowling Services for almost 40 years.
"I've met a lot of close, personal friends through bowling. I met my wife through bowling," he told me.
"To me, it's deep," said JM Elbert, a long-time bowler, customer, and friend. "And once you get to know him, even if he doesn't know you, he doesn't meet a stranger."
Covey does a bit of everything in his bowling pro shop, earning loyal customers and striking up a lot of conversations.
"This is a highly personal business on several levels, almost like visiting a doctor," said Covey.
Soon he'll have more time to spare. He calls his upcoming retirement bittersweet.
"I'm getting to the end of this book. And hopefully I'll pick up another book, that's life," he said.
"I told him when he leaves and we need our equipment done, we're gonna come to his house," laughed Elbert.
His impact on this bowling family goes beyond his skill and listening ear.
"I don't do this for the money," said Covey. "It's a trust thing.
"A little bit like a barber chair?" I asked him.
"A lot like a barber chair," he replied.
"I carry four balls with me, and I bought 'em all from Bob and when he drills 'em or resurfaces them, you know, pay him with tuna!" said Elbert.
Yes, for the last few years, Bob says for some services, he only charges cans of tuna.
"When a person comes in to buy a new ball, normally, I would charge $55 to drill it, but if you bring me 25 cans of tuna, I'd drill it for free."
"Anytime I go in there, it's not a very big place, there's lot of times three or four cases of tuna sitting on the floor," said Kevin Barnes, owner of Ward Parkway Lanes.
Why? Bob says it's all to donate to feed people he'll never meet.
"In the last three years, how many cans of tuna do you think you donated?" I asked him. "Probably close to 3,000," he said. "It doesn't seem like much to me."
It's just one way he hopes he's inspired others to help and maybe keep the ball rolling
"We got too many big problems in this world. People look at those big problems and say, 'I can't fix that,' and walk away," Bob told me. "But maybe we fix little problems. If everybody helped fix a little problem, those big problems shrink."
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