Yesterday, I took part in Rhode Island Junior Achievement's 25th Annual Achieve-A-Bowl, a fund-raising event that has collected over $80,000 this year to support Junior Achievement's in-school education programs. I think this is a very important charity to support right now due to the obvious deficit of Finance and Economics education in our school systems. Considering that 34% of respondents to a survey conducted by Bankrate.com didn't know what type of mortgage they had, I fell it is very important to support anything that will increase financial literacy.

Participating in the event was a blast. I bowled on a team consisting of several members of my BNI chapter, CitiBiz BNI, along with 9 other members. In spite of the beautiful weather outside, we stayed on for three strings. I was a little disappointed with my results in the first string, as I finished at a very unexciting 93. In the second string, however, I turned up the heat a little

(I know it's a bit tough to read, but that does say 175) and produced my best game ever at 175. In the 3rd game, I proved that it hadn't been a fluke, rolling another 175.

I think I also proved that cell phone pictures, in general, are bad. As if to further highlight that, I also shot some video of the event, yes, also on the cell phone.

In all, it was a great event in support of a fantastic cause. If you haven't already contributed and you're interested, I think my online donation page will be live for a little while longer. Thanks again to all who sponsored me for this event. It was a blast participating, and I look forward to doing it again.

Dan Hartman is a Senior Mortgage Advisor with Province Mortgage Associates, and also serves as an adjunct Professor of Finance with Roger Williams University and the University of New Haven. He can be reached by commenting on this article, or by phone at (401) 263-8655.