Paul Rudd's 12-Year Bowling Fundraiser Helps Kids Who Stutter

Paul Rudd has played superheroes on screen for years, but his most meaningful role might be the one he plays every year at a Manhattan bowling alley.

Since 2012, the actor has hosted an annual all-star bowling tournament that raises money for The Stuttering Association for the Young. The event funds free speech therapy, creative arts programs, and Camp SAY, the world's largest summer camp for kids and teens who stutter.

Rudd's commitment began in 2006 when he portrayed a character with a severe stutter in the Broadway play "Three Days of Rain." He started attending meetings with SAY to better understand the experience.

"I think playing a character who had a really bad stutter, I kind of approached this affliction from the point of view of somebody who suffers from it for the first time," Rudd told Vanity Fair at the first bowling event. Meeting the kids changed everything for him.

The Broadway play ended years ago, but Rudd couldn't walk away. He joined SAY's board and turned the annual bowling tournament into a star-studded affair, recruiting celebrities like Lin-Manuel Miranda, Mariska Hargitay, and Michael Shannon to bowl alongside kids in the program.

But the real stars are the children themselves. "I used to be shy to speak in front of my classmates and now I do it all the time," 11-year-old Klanell Lee said at one event. Fourteen-year-old Andrew Carlins added, "You're in a group of people with the same issues and that gives you confidence."

Rudd told People Magazine that his most powerful moment came at the very first SAY gala. A seven-year-old boy with an intense stutter introduced him onstage in front of hundreds of people. "I was so knocked out by his courage and how amazing he was, I burst into tears within 10 seconds," Rudd said.

Why This Inspires

Rudd himself experienced bullying as a kid, which deepened his empathy for what these children face. "I started thinking how hard it is to be a kid anyway, but then to have a stutter, and have to contend with bullies, and just general confidence and security that is also shaky when you're growing up," he explained.

With over 70 film and television credits, the SAY bowling benefit has quietly become Rudd's longest-running project. It's one thing to play a hero on screen, but quite another to show up year after year for kids who need to know someone believes in them.