CARTERVILLE - U.S. Postal Service employees deliver hundreds of letters across Southern Illinois but on Sunday afternoon, the letters MDA were all that carriers were concerning themselves with.

Postal carriers got the ball rolling for the Muscular Dystrophy Association during a bowl-a-thon at the SI Bowl in Carterville.

Lanes were opened up to 21 teams each with four players around 1 p.m. The money for registration and lane sponsorship helped the carriers and other participants to raise between $5,500 and $6,500 towards a donation to the MDA.

"That's very, very good," said Jim Cislaghi, event coordinator, a Herrin postal worker. "This is a very good cause. It's great that people have big enough hearts to help out with something like this."

People of all ages wore the same white MDA shirts to show off their support as groups laughed and shared in the fun of bowling for a good cause.

As the action continued down the lanes, Rene Goodman, district director for MDA, watched one very special team get ready to take to the lanes.

"They are our special guests," Goodman said about the Tate family, who showed up wearing teal MDA shirts that made them stand out from the crowd.

Goodman said it wasn't only the color of their shirts that made them special, but also the titles that the two young Tate boys brought with them.

Beau Tate, 7 and Gabe Tate, 4 are the Illinois State Goodwill Ambassadors for the MDA and also have Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy - a form of muscular dystrophy most commonly found in children at a very early age.

The boys became goodwill ambassadors to help spread awareness of the disease. They were honored with the titles because of a large community event, sponsored by the family in their hometown of Galatia, which raises approximately $40,000 annually.

The Stride and Ride walk-a-thon takes place in Galatia in October and Jennifer Tate said it helps her to cope with the illness of her own children by bringing awareness and support to others.

"It makes it a little easier because of the awareness," she said. "I feel like we are working towards something instead of just sitting and dealing with it."

Joining the mom and boys in their game were Haley Tate, 10, and MDA program coordinator Jennifer Crouch.

Down a few lanes Doug Meadows of Anna said Sunday's event was the second time he has participated as a representative of the letter carriers in Carbondale.

"I'm a union member and they talked about it at one of our union meetings," he said. "We just wanted to do what we could to help the kids with muscular dystrophy. We're having fun and helping out a good cause. This is a cause that is near and dear to our hearts. We want to bring a resolution to this horrible illness."

tara.fasol@thesouthern.com / 351-5824

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Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy is one of nine kinds of muscular dystrophy, a group of genetic and degenerative diseases that primarily affect voluntary muscles. According to the Web site for the Muscular Dystrophy Association, Duchenne is caused by 'an absence of dystrophin, a protein that helps keep muscle cells intact.'