Benefactor knows all the angles

Following the replacement of some billiards equipment at R.H. Johnson Lanes a couple months ago, Sun City West resident Bruce De Lis started looking for a good place to donate the used items.

What he found was a cause he continues to this day. De Lis won’t rest until all 12 Boys and Girls Clubs of Metropolitan Phoenix are stocked with adequate billiards supplies.

What started as a trip to the Jerry and Helen Wisotsky Peoria Branch of the Boys and Girls Club to drop off a couple sets of pool balls has turned into a personal quest that has netted donations from thousands of miles away.

"I thought this was going to be a one-shot deal (but then) I thought, ‘you know what? Maybe I can help these kids,’" he said. "I’d like to see all the clubs well stocked so they have a good selection of cues, decent balls, chalk ... just basic stuff that you need to play pool. There’s still a lot of need," De Lis said.

De Lis, a billiards player for more than 50 years who played his first game at a Boys Club in Florida, has taken to billiards blogs, phoning his friends and posting notes around Sun City West to collect items for the clubs, which collectively serve more than 35,000 children each year.

"A lot of people move out here and they have stuff in their closets and it just sits there. I put a note up in the Rec Center and probably got eight or 10 cues," he said. "I’m not looking for monetary donations, I’m looking for unwanted items."

Anthony Markey, the youth program director for the Peoria Boys and Girls Club, said interest in billiards has picked up now that the club has enough equipment to accompany its three pool tables. Prior to the recent efforts of De Lis, the club didn’t have even have chalk. What it did have was "subpar" equipment that included cue sticks without tips.

"Better equipment means more kids are playing," Markey said. "It’s another thing (the kids) can work on, now that they have better equipment. We serve neighborhoods with high rates of crime, so this is another area they can explore ... one more thing that they can do."

"Bruce has been great. He’s really tenacious at this. He’s going for the gold. We’ve talked about maybe getting him involved in other areas because if this is what he can do with pool sticks, who knows what else he can do," Markey said.

He said any donation is useful to the non-profit Boys and Girls Clubs, which operate primarily on donated recreational and educational items.

"A good percentage of everything we get is donated, so anything like this that people come in and drop off is awesome," he said. "Who knows, 10 years from now maybe we’ll find some people who started (playing pool) at this Boys and Girls Club."

De Lis, who has fond memories of spending time at a Boys Club in his youth, knows that reality well. This quest is his way of paying it forward.

"I feel like if a couple more clubs could be stocked, maybe we accomplished something," he said.

And that relatively simple idea continues to pick up steam. Now that the Peoria club is stocked, the donations he takes over about once a week are distributed to the other clubs in the Valley.

De Lis said he is always surprised at what shows up in the mail — and where it comes up from.

"I’ve actually gotten things from as far away as the Philippines. The Rec Centers donated some triangles. I got a cue from New York ... donations from a company in China," he said. "I’d like to try and get some more things."

Tax receipts are available if contact information is left with the donation, De Lis said.

Billiards items including chalk, cue sticks, triangles, free standing stick holders, wall mountable stick holders, instructional DVDs and other related items may be dropped off at the billiards room at R.H. Johnson Lanes, 19803 R.H. Johnson Blvd., at Northern Lounge Bar, 5008 W. Northern Ave., in Glendale, or mailed to Bruce De Lis, PO Box 5865, Sun City West, 85376.

Items may also be dropped off at any Boys and Girls Club location, including the Peoria club at 11820 N. 81st Ave.