We were very pleased to see a strong turnout — and hope that the fundraising goal was met — for an event this past weekend that raises money for a wonderful program at the Butler YMCA.

The 28th annual Bowl for the Kids fundraiser was held Sunday afternoon at the Family Bowlaway Fun Center. The event is a recurring fundraiser for the Butler YMCA's Reach & Rise children's program.

Christine Dreher, the YMCA's development director, said the event is one of the YMCA's largest annual fundraisers. This year's fundraising goal was $20,000. We hope that goal was reached.

The Reach & Rise program is a great one for the community.

It's a youth group mentoring program that aims to empower young people between the ages of 6 and 17. It helps them to overcome such challenges as low self esteem, unsatisfactory academic progress, peer difficulties and poor decision-making skills.

These services would be essential at any particular time, as there are always going to be students who either struggle with their grades or socialization skills.

In an increasingly social media-driven society, self esteem has likely become an even more important issue to combat among youths. Social media often enables bullying and can lead to self esteem issues among those who are victims of harassment.

Most likely, the COVID-19 pandemic has upended life even more for many students who have attended school remotely and in-person these past few years, and social distancing has made the types of services offered by Reach & Rise even more crucial at this particular moment.

So, we're glad to hear that more than 200 residents turned out for an event supporting this great program. And it was great to see local businesses sponsoring it.

Butler County residents often turn out to support great initiatives — and we're always glad to see it — but it's especially nice that this one was a success.

"We would do anything to support the kids," one attendee told the Eagle.

That's great to hear. A round of applause is in order for all those who organized, sponsored and took part in this event.

— NCD