Cheryl and Gary Brooks of Lancaster, Pa., have managed to combine a favorite hobby with a way of making a living.

Both avid bowlers, the couple own two businesses--Gary's Pro Shop and Pins & Needles Embroidery. The pro shop is located in a 52-lane bowling center, and the embroidery business operates within the pro shop.

The Brookses, who lease their space from the bowling center, have been in their current location for 14 years--long enough to remember when their youngest son, Josh, now a sophomore at UD majoring in biology, entertained himself by riding the oiling machine up and down the lanes.

Gary can hardly remember a time when he wasn't involved in the bowling business. "He's owned a pro shop since 1968," Cheryl says, "but I didn't get into the business until we were in our current location. I knew I wanted my own business, and I started by looking into trophies because of the logical connection to bowling. The owner of the business I visited while exploring options convinced me that trophies involved too much inventory and too many parts, but he showed me his embroidery machine and suggested I consider that. It ended up being another four years or so before I actually got started, but it was a perfect fit."

Gary's Pro Shop sells a full line of bowling equipment and accessories from balls and bags to shoes and jackets. The store also sponsors teams, offers lessons and provides a venue for equipment demonstrations. With Pins & Needles located under the same roof, the Brookses are able to personalize the clothing they sell and outfit teams for league play.

But Cheryl doesn't limit herself to bowling products. She also does soccer uniforms, corporate logos, and gifts. "The most unusual item I've ever done was toilet paper," she says. "It was part of a gift basket and was for decoration only!" Her business is small, with only one machine. But that enables her to handle small jobs that some other businesses might not want to bother with. "I've done jobs as small as six pieces but can go up to 200 when the demand arises," she says.

Not surprisingly, both Cheryl and Gary find time to participate in the sport when they're not busy equipping other people to bowl. "Gary is an excellent amateur bowler," Cheryl says. "We bowl together in local leagues, but he also competes in tournaments throughout the United States, including the Eastern Senior Tour and Buddy Tierno's Senior Tour."

Bowling has "rubbed off" on Josh. He started when he was 3 and now competes on the University of Delaware team. Both parents travel with the team to tournaments whenever possible, and Gary takes time out of his busy schedule to come down to UD every Friday and help out with the team. "There is nothing more rewarding than helping others to improve and advance their skill level in a sport, especially when you are working with youth," Gary says. "Watching the kids compete as a team with the only real reward coming from their love of the sport has also given me a new perspective on and enthusiasm for the game.

Bowling is a club sport at Delaware that was started only three years ago with a men's team and expanded to add a women's team in its second year. "The team is young," says Cheryl, "but they've done very well. The men's team won their conference and made it to sectionals two years out of the three. A lot of people aren't even aware that the school has a bowling team. They're a great bunch of kids who work hard in the classroom--several members are on the Dean's List--and at the lanes, and it's important to us to support them in any way we can."

The Brookses are big fans not only of the University bowling team but also of the school itself. "We're very happy with UD," Cheryl says, "and Josh is, too. We live in Pennsylvania, so UD was the most financially challenging of the schools Josh was accepted to. However, he's receiving an excellent education, and we look forward to someday watching as he graduates from Delaware."

Josh may be a biology major, but it's his knowledge of another science that has enabled him to help out in his parents' small businesses. "We're strictly a two-person show," says Cheryl. "The only other person involved is Josh, who uses his background in physics to help his father with balancing and drilling bowling balls in terms of weight distribution and performance."

--Diane Kukich
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