A strong commitment to volunteering has guided Donna Bearden to 5-pin bowling’s ultimate honour, induction into the Hall of Fame.
Donna Hallett was born in the small town of Stouffville on July 28, 1946, the second daughter of Levi and Evelyn. Growing up on a farm was hard work, as Donna and her sisters Freda and Joanne were kept busy tending to the cattle and harvesting the crops. In a farming community, everyone helped one another, as Donna reflected back, she kept busy and out of trouble between going to school and working on the farm.
In 1959, her dad bought a bigger farm and moved the family to Sandford, a community north of Uxbridge. As fate would have it, a young Bill Bearden, too inebriated to drive after attending a stag, spent the night on the farm sleeping in the car. In order to earn his breakfast the next day, Donna’s dad put him to work digging potatoes in his suit. Soon after, Bill and Donna were married and moved to Uxbridge.
Donna’s involvement with the sport really began in 1975. When Lloyd Parrish purchased Uxbridge Bowl from Primo Ognibene in 1973, he needed someone to work behind the snack bar. That someone turned out to be his neighbour Donna. It was working at the bowling centre where Donna met co-workers, Don Chase and Barry Parrish. Now Don had been bowling for some time and one Saturday night during a rather slow time at the snack bar, decided to show Donna how to bowl. From this quick introduction to bowling, the wheels of motion had started to turn. At the start of the bowling season a vacancy occurred on Barry’s team in the Wednesday Night Mixed league and before you knew it, Donna found herself a member of that team with Don Dunkeld. Now in those days, bowling was at the height of it’s popularity and the league quickly grew. Eventually Don and Donna split away from the 7 o’clock league and started another league at 9 o’clock. Afternoon ladies leagues were popular then, with many stay at home moms looking for something to do without worrying about baby-sitters. At the time, the Tuesday Afternoon Ladies league was the only league that bowled at Uxbridge and they were a well established older league that didn’t want any kids running around. To accommodate these young moms, Donna started the Thursday Afternoon Ladies League, provided a baby-sitting service in the poolroom and worked as a league executive for six years. When the Monday Night Men’s league found themselves without a Treasurer one year, Don Chase suggested that Donna could do the job. After all, she knew all the bowlers and was quite capable of handling the position. Not only did she handle that job for over eight years, Donna sponsored her own team.
In the early 70’s, Walter Valentan was hired by the Ontario Bowlers’ Congress to generate membership by decentralizing bowling centres. At that time, York Simcoe took in a large area with Uxbridge Bowl situated in the “grey area” of our boundaries between Ontario Durham and 1000 Lakes. In 1980, not wanting to lose those members, then President Jack Hill, got together with a small group of bowlers from Uxbridge with the idea of forming a Decentralized Association. As the story goes, Jack and Lloyd conned Don Chase, Marg Hayward and Donna into starting the association. With Lloyd owning both Uxbridge Bowl and River Valley restaurant, they decided to call the association Uxbridge Valley. Donna was the obvious choice to handle the Secretary duties as she had the experience as a league executive. In 1983, Donna was awarded with the Secretary of the Year honour at the Annual Convention. In her twelve-year involvement of the Association, Donna has held the positions of Secretary, Vice-President and Tournament Director. When Don and Sharon Woodrow purchased the centre from Lloyd, they were so impressed with the way the Association functioned that they sent a letter to President Don Chase expressing their appreciation for the outstanding job that the executive had done, in particular his Tournament Director Donna Bearden. From 1997 until her retirement Donna was manager of the bowling centre, while still working for the Association. In 1999, Uxbridge Valley presented Donna with the Executive of the Year award.
Today, Donna enjoys her retirement time reading and spending time at the trailer. No more late night meetings or Sunday morning tournaments; just relaxing time with Bill and their three grandchildren Kali, Kati and William.
Donna stated that while spending countless hours with bowling work, her greatest accomplishments were raising two girls, juggling her job and family life and staying married to Bill. To Dorothy and Kimberly, we thank you for sharing you mom with our “bowling family” as we welcome her into the Volunteer’s division of the Hall of Fame.