Normally, Jeff Ball visits Spare Time Recreation to bowl with his church league.

Sunday, he and approximately 70 other people came to bowl for his 7-year-old daughter and other children fighting her battle.

Spare Time Recreation was the site of Andrew's Buddies of the Tri-State Area's "Strike Out SMA" bowl-a-thon. The Andrew's Buddies national organization, centered in Richmond, Va., has nine other chapters and supports research to find a treatment for spinal muscular atrophy (SMA). SMA, the leading inherited killer of children younger than 2, is a group of diseases which affect the motor neurons of the spinal cord and brain stem.

All proceeds of the event will go to SMA research. Ten dollars bought three games and a towel, while $50 also included a T-shirt. Door prizes were given out throughout the day.

Despite snow which eventually closed schools throughout Lawrence County the next day, Ball, president, said the event had the largest attendance in its six years.

Ball's fight is a personal one. In March 1997, his daughter Lauren, now 7, was diagnosed with SMA. The following October, he met with Martha Slay, president of Andrew Buddies' national office, and the Tri-State chapter was born. Slay is the mother of 16-year-old Andrew Slay after whom the organization is named.

"You'll do anything for your kid," he said.

This young girl, according to her great-aunt Doris Thompson, is a joy to everyone she encounters. Lauren is a straight-A student who loves people, she said.

Rick and Becky Cremeens are also in Ball's situation. Their 12-year-old daughter Miranda was diagnosed with SMA when she was 3 years old. Both were pleased with the turnout for the bowl-a-thon in which Lauren Ball and Miranda were able to bowl using special equipment from Spare Time.

"She's like every other 12-year-old," Becky Cremeens said. "She does everything any other kid does. She's just in a chair."

"I think it's cool that so many people came out," Miranda Cremeens said. "It's a really good cause, curing SMA."

"I'll probably cry when they find the cure," Rick Cremeens said. "She's (Miranda) a lot stronger than I am. She's got her mind set on beating this thing."

Even though a cure for SMA has not been found, serious strides have been made in research. Beth Ball, Jeff Ball's wife and Lauren's mother, said while older children underwent invasive testing for SMA in the past, Lauren only had to have a blood test. Her two younger children, 5-year-old Matthew and 5-week-old Mark only had to have blood taken out of their umbilical cords. Neither Matthew nor Mark has SMA.

Sarah Cremeens, Miranda's 17-year-old sister, may be the one who finds the cure. She said her sister has inspired her to become a genetic counselor.

The Ball and Cremeens families weren't the only ones bowling or helping to raise money.

"They gave me this job three years ago because no one else could make them buy like me," Spare Time employee Mike Wood said as he was selling raffle tickets. "You can tell me no, but don't tell those kids no. I have three healthy kids, and I'll do anything to help out."

"Even with the snow flying, we had all 12 lanes going," he continued.