Ice Bowl 2021 Sets a New Donation Record…Over $420K
The great news from Ice Bowl® 2021 is that 165 Ice Bowl events raised over $427K setting the record for charitable donations. This surpasses the previous record set in 2020 by over $27K. Fifty of these Ice Bowls had records donations in 2021. There are still a few events we hope to hear from that will push the final tally to over $430K. Ice Bowl’s grand total for donations has been boosted to nearly $5.4 million since 1996 when charity was first introduced as a component for Ice Bowls. Additionally there has been over 930,000 pounds of food collected.
Not surprisingly, Ice Bowl 2021 was the oddest year ever due to Covid. Almost all events had to forego their traditional social activities and some forwent competition all together but still raised funds to keep their Ice Bowl traditions going,. There was creative use of online tools including virtual registration, online auctions, and virtual scoring. (Thank you U-Disc!) Over 25 events utilized the PDGA’s Competition Endowment Program, which, in part, allows the tournament to send the $2 player fee to the charity instead of the PDGA. This alone brought in over $6,000.
There were roughly 40 fewer events than in 2020, but there were Ice Bowls in 42 states, four Canadian provinces, and Norway. There were Ice Bowls in major metro areas and smaller cities and towns as well as tiny towns with populations below 1,000. While all Ice Bowls matter, we want to highlight the top five events, the ones that exceeded $10K donations and accounted for nearly 25% of the donation total.
Three of 12 Ice Bowls that have raised at least $20K in a year were in 2021. The Loco Disc Golf Club in Purcellville, Virginia had its best-year ever with a $24,355 donation for Loudoun Hunger Relief. This edged the Mile High Disc Golf Club in Denver Colorado, the all-time Ice Bowl fundraiser, by less than $300. The Maple City Ice Bowl in Goshen Indiana was third. After a two-decade hiatus from running an Ice Bowl, Jason Samuel, a Goshen College Communications Professor, had modest plans for fundraising, but after garnering support from the Goshen mayor and others in the community, the event ended up donating $20,606 to the Window Food Bank. These three donations represent the fifth, sixth, and 11th largest of all time. Mile High has raised over $316K in 18 years. Celebrating its 10th Ice Bowl in 2021, Loco DGC has now raised over 83K. The previous Ice Bowls in Goshen raised less than $400.
Here’s a Loco Ice Bowl news story and another, a Mile High Ice Bowl Facebook summary, and a news story about the Maple City Ice Bowl and another and another.
Rounding out the Ice Bowls raising at least $10K are the Kansas City Ice Bowl, which donated a record $14,895 (19th best all-time IB donation) for the Bishop Sullivan Center and the Mission Project and the Fairmont Ice Bowl in West Virginia, which also had its best donation ever, sending $11,571 (37th best) to the Soup Opera. This pushed KC’s grand total in 26 years to almost $120,000. Fairmont’s 17-year total is now $55,382.
Here’s the news from the KC Ice Bowl. Here is a news story about the Fairmont Ice Bowl and another.
When charity became the defining feature of Ice Bowl, organizers were encouraged to run an Ice Bowl to help make their communities better and to publicize disc golf. We have kept our focus on these twin goals, even as we have typically given out prizes from our suppliers/sponsors as a way of saying, “Good job!” And so now we say “Good job to our sponsors.” Thank you Innova for the Pro DisCatchers that will be going to the Loco and Mile High Disc Golf Clubs. Thank you Discraft for the sets of 50 custom full-color Buzzes that the Maple City and Kansas City Ice Bowls selected. And thank you to Gateway Disc Sports (bag, custom discs, and stock discs), MVP Disc Sports (150 triple-stamped Ice Bowl discs), Discmania (backpacks and goodies), Kastaplast (collector’s discs), Millennium (backpack), and Ice Bowl Foundation (historic Ice Bowl plastic and clothing) for proving enough prizes to reward the top 25 events, which raised after one-half of all donations. Below is a list of the 20 other winners of prizes, their donations, and the prizes they are getting.
We’re looking forward to Ice Bowl 2022 when hopefully we can bring back some of the fun social aspects that were so sorely missed in 2021. Please consider running an Ice Bowl in your town. Visit icebowlhq.com for more information. Direct any questions about Ice Bowl to Rick Rothstein at rickrothstein@gmail.com, 816-914-0094, or via Facebook messenger. For the full results, go here. Also, you can visit the Ice Bowl Facebook page here.
Here are the rest of the top 25 2021 Ice Bowls, their donations, prizes, and media:
6. The R’Ice Bowl IV, Reston, VA,
$9,431, Capital Area Food Bank
Gateway – Large Backpack Bag
7. 26th Annual Tulsa Ice Bowl, Tulsa, OK,
$9,415, Community Food Bank of Eastern Oklahoma,
Gateway – 50 custom-stamped discs
8, 2021 PFD Ice Bowl Presented by Grip It and Rip It Disc Golf, Pittsburgh, PA
$8,547, Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank
MPV – 20 triple-stamped Ice Bowl 2021 Cosmic Neutron Trace
9. 2021 Cottonwood Ice Bowl, Colorado Springs, CO
$8,354, Share and Care
MPV – 20 triple-stamped Ice Bowl 2021 Cosmic Neutron Trace
10. Ice Bowl Krazy 4-event series, Independence, KY
$8,350, Fairhaven Rescue Mission
MPV – 20 triple-stamped Ice Bowl 2021 Cosmic Neutron Trace
11. Peoria Frisbee Club Ice Bowl, Peoria, IL
$8,200, Midwest Food Bank & City Market
Discmania – Fanatic backpacks with discs and goodies inside
Media link and another
12. Ice Bowl at Kessler Mountain, Fayetteville, AR
$7,500, Ice Bowl at Kessler Mountain
MPV – 20 triple-stamped Ice Bowl 2021 Cosmic Neutron Trace
13, K-Town Ice Bowl, Kalkaska, MI
$7,358, Kalkaska Commission on Aging & Kalkaska Area Interfaith Resources
Millennium – 1 Grip G-Series bag
14, Grand Valley Ice Bowl, Palisade (Grand Junction), CO
$7,215, Catholic Outreach, Agape Food Pantry, Child and Migrant Services
Ice Bowl HQ – 3 2016 black Ice Bowl discs and 1 Mini Buzzz
15. Dacey Dubs – Part 1 & Part 2, Franklin, MA
$6,005, Franklin Food Pantry
Ice Bowl HQ – 35 Little Flyer Minis with Ice Bowl stamp
T16. St. Cloud Ice Bowl, St. Joseph, MN
$6,000, St. Joseph Food Shelf & Pathways 4 Youth
Discmania – Fanatic backpacks with discs and goodies inside
T16. Freezebee Ice Bowl, Troy, MI
$6,000, Detroit Capuchin Soup Kitchen
Gateway – 15 stock discs
St. Charles County Disc Golf Club Ice Bowl, Wentzville, MO
$5,650, O.A.S.I.S. Food Pantry
Ice Bowl HQ – 3 2016 black Ice Bowl discs and 1 Mini Buzzz
19. Sarasota Super Ice Bowl, Sarasota, FL
$5,241, All Faiths Food Banks
Kastaplast – 1 first-run mint Svea
20. 30th Annual Houston Flying Disc Society Ice Bowl, Houston, TX
$5,203, Houston Food Bank
Gateway – 10 stock discs
21. Jefferson City Ice Bowl, Jefferson City, MO
$4,605, Samaritan Center of Jefferson City
Kastaplast – 1 first-run mint Svea
22. San Juan Basin Ice Bowl, Aztec, NM
$4,146. Echo Food Bank
Ice Bowl HQ – 25 Little Flyer Minis with Ice Bowl stamp
Media link and another
23. DGVT Ice Bowl: Ice Bucket XV, Waterbury Center, VT
$4,106, Lamoille Community Food Share, Feeding Chittenden, Milton Family Community Center, Waterbury Area Food Shelf, Vermont Food Bank
Kastaplast – 1 first-run mint Svea
24. 2021 Tallahassee Ice Bowl, Tallahassee, FL
$4,060, Second Harvest of the Big Bend,
Ice Bowl HQ – Six historical Ice Bowl shirts
25. 2nd MDGC Ice Bowl, Marion, OH
$4,000, The Salvation Army
Gateway – 5 stock discs