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Over $12,000 was raised to build the long awaited recreational center, now called the Budokan of Los Angeles.
By P.C. Contributor
Published September 4, 2009
Bowlers from across the greater Los Angeles area gathered recently in Henderson, Nevada for the first annual BoLA-Thon, a charity tournament to raise money for a recreation center in Los Angeles’ Little Tokyo.
The Aug. 15 event attracted over 250 people. Over 20 teams, with members ranging in age from five to over 50, bowled for a cause — to build the Budokan of Los Angeles (BoLA) formerly known as the Little Tokyo Recreation Center.
The event — hosted by the South Bay 76ers and the South Bay Shooting Starz — raised over $12,000 for the BoLA project.
The BoLA-Thon was sponsored by the Sansei Legacy Group of Southern California, a group dedicated to assisting the Japanese American community by providing grants to worthy projects, events and groups.
“What started out as a team gathering has expanded to a fully-fledged fundraiser,” said Mark Doi of the Sansei Legacy Group.
The Budokan of Los Angeles, a 40,000-square-foot sports and activities center, will be located on the west side of Los Angeles Street between 2nd and 3rd Streets in Little Tokyo. The sports and activities center will host major basketball, volleyball and martial arts tournaments, and will serve as a local community center for ongoing activities.
Budokan roughly translates as “martial arts hall” in Japanese. The name is derived from the Nippon Budokan, a large arena in Tokyo originally built for judo competition during the 1964 Summer Olympics. Today it serves as a multi-purpose facility that hosts sports, entertainment and other activities.
The BoLA project is a project of LTSC Community Development Corporation, a non-profit community-based organization, which has been providing services for over 29 years to the greater Los Angeles community.
For more information: www.budokanoflosangeles.com
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