https://www.facebook.com/BYUNewsline/posts/1759034157589881
The Brigham Young University Bowling and Games Center continued to serve their customers despite COVID-19 hampering business.
The center is a place where people can go to spend their time away from busy schedules and play some games like bowling with friends and family members.
Ashley Wilkin, a desk attendant at the center said capacity has gone down because of COVID-19 pandemic, meaning low business.
“Business has been a little bit different since Covid. Mainly, we just have students coming; we are pretty full with classes going on throughout the day,” she said.
Students constitute a big number of customers, but families show up during the weekends.
Ashley Wilkin added that they require masks for customers to come in and bowl.
“We have to take their temperatures when they come in to make sure they don’t have a fever,” she added.
Joshua Arment, a certified instructor who has taught wellness for over three years, said he is teaching bowling classes to 120 students here at BYU this semester.
“So the number one objective that I have for the students is for them to just have fun. Beyond that, I also want to see if I can get their average to improve. Some are just here for social reasons, so they just want to have good social time,” he said.
He adds that bowling is a unique sport that is hard to know whether a player will get a strike or not.
“All the obstacles that you encounter are not other people and are not things that you can see,” he added.
Tiina Watts, a master’s student in second language with emphasis in Finnish and a student of bowling, said she is enjoying her time since deciding to go back to class.
“It is really hard trying to learn again. I’m 60, and my brain doesn’t quite work the same as when I was here in the late 70s early 80s, but it is getting better and I’m loving it,” she said.
One interesting fact is being in a class with her children.
“With my kids, we decided we take some kind of class together, and we thought, why not take bowling, something that even old people can do and young people. And we’ve had a great time bowling together. They are better than I am, but I don’t care,” Tiina added.
Seung Yeon Park, who also works as a desk attendant, said the BYU Bowling and Games Center has a variety of games that you can enjoy
“Obviously the main attraction is bowling. There are also like virtual racing games. You can shoot basketball,” he said. Other games include Pacman and air hockey.
Ashley Wilkin said that she is enjoying her time as a staff member at the center because of some great memories that she had experienced while working there.
“There was this one guy that came in in an inflatable dinosaur costume. He came in to bowl. He just threw one ball, he got a strike and walked away, and it was the funniest thing that I saw all day,” she said.
BYU Bowling and Games Center is found on the 1st floor of BYU’s Wilkinson Center, Room 1171.
