Don't Believe the Hype Celebrity Bowlathon

Proceeds from the auction benefit area youth programs. In 2017, beneficiaries included: the Dallas-Fort Worth Association of Black Journalists scholarship fund, which has received over $50,000 since the bowl-a-thon's inception. Additionally, Senator Royce West’s Dr. Emmett J. Conrad Internship Program is a recipient. Also, proceeds have assisted in transporting students to National Association of Black Journalist (NABJ) conventions in Seattle, Phoenix, Orlando, D.C., Atlanta, Indianapolis, Houston, New Orleans, Las Vegas and Oklahoma. Jeffries Street Learning Center, the Black Academy of Arts and Letters, the Emmett Till Foundation and the African American Museum are just a few of the beneficiaries over the years.

Cheryl Smith's Don't Believe the Hype Bowl-a-thon is a fundraiser and an entertaining event in which scholarship funds are raised for charity . Over the past 23 years we have had numerous celebrities participate including comedians Dick Gregory, Shuckey Duckey, Nanette Lee, David A. Arnold, Joe Torry, D. Elli$ and Phyllis Yvonne Stickney; singers Eric Benet and Miles Jaye; Public Enemy members Chuck D and Malik Farrakhan; former U.S. Ambassador/Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk, U.S. Congressmen Martin Frost and Marc Veasey; TX State Representatives Helen Giddings, Yvonne Davis and Barbara Mallory Caraway; former Dallas Mayor and Mayor Pro Tem Dwaine Caraway; former NFL greats Bethel Johnson and Dante Wesley, former District Attorney Craig Watkins, Commissioner John Wiley Price, Judges Maryellen Hicks, Lincoln Monroe, Cheryl Lee Shannon, Ingrid Warren, Shequitta Kelly, Amber Givens, Valencia Nash, Kim Cooks, Stephanie Mitchell, Andrea Martin, Lee Jackson, Staci Williams, and Phyllis Lister Brown; actresses Kiki Shepard, Angela Robinson, T’keyah Crystal Keymah, Vanessa Bell Calloway, VirLinda Stanton and Dawnn Lewis; national journalists Rene Syler, Brian Custer and Roland Martin, and a host of other local radio, television, internet and print media personalities.