Archive for "Community"
Ramon in Wichita
Posted on August 4, 2022 by Ching under Community, Food and Drink, Pickleball.
My friend Ramon Lozano came to Wichita on the last weekend of June so we could play some games together before the Newport Beach tournament. We decided to play in the Y’s Men charity tournament benefiting the Greater Wichita YMCA so that we could kill two birds with one stone – we’re helping the community raise money for a great cause and we are getting to practice.
We didn’t fare as well as I’d hoped in the tournament but it’s always a good time playing with Ramon. There’s a reason “Everybody Loves Ramon” – LOL. That was our team name for the tournament.
Ramon drove into town early on Friday to get some games in with Kyle (Starkel, aka “Soapdish” also “Pornstache”) and a couple of other guys. Brian and I needed stamps for our Wicked Brew passports (something that we do every summer) and so we were game when Kyle suggested we meet up at Norton’s.
Here are some pics of our delicious food… BTW, you cannot go to Norton’s and not get bacon crack. It is a must!
Here are some pictures from the charity tournament at Chicken N Pickle the next morning. I had to get a picture with my friend Erica Lopez because we both were playing with Joola paddles that day. Formerly, we both played with Electrum Pro paddles. So we still managed to match somehow.
Here’s a pic of the top two teams of the tournament: Ian Carr and Jen Reifschneider vs. Karen Fox and Chris “Sexy Legs” Heck.
Karen and Chris won, obviously. Chris always wins. But, not too shabby for Ian who has come in second to Chris every time.
Anyway, that’s all for now. Until next time. GNG.
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Learning to Make Soap
Posted on July 26, 2022 by Ching under Community, Projects.
These are pictures from one of my most favorite Rotary luncheons of all time. It was the day that Isaac McNary came to present to the club (for the second time). The first time he visited our club, he talked about the Outreach Program. This time he showed us how to make soap.
He made it look easy but I’m still probably not going to try it myself. Some of the ingredients are caustic and must be handled very carefully. I can picture myself totally screwing everything up and getting burned by the acid. Anyway, I will just buy soaps from him which goes to a very good cause anyway. He makes and sells soaps to raise money for Rotary International’s End Polio Now initiative.
It was a really informative meeting. Also, Isaac is always very entertaining and engaging whenever he speaks so we always love having him visit.
Until next time, GNG.
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Dream Team Doubles at Riverside
Posted on June 28, 2022 by Ching under Community, Pickleball.
Last month we held our first Dream Team Doubles pickleball tournament at Ralph Wulz Riverside Tennis Center. We ended up with six teams of four — two men and two women — to complete for the title of ultimate team champion. It was my first time running a mini tournament with this specific format (women’s doubles, men’s doubles, and two mixed doubles) and I was so proud of myself for staying right on schedule. I think I’m starting to get the hang of this!
This is the Excel template that I created specifically for the round robin portion this event. After five rounds of play, which gave everyone a chance to play against all the other teams in the tournament, we did a single elimination bracket.
Personally, I like the round robin + single elimination format compared to a double elimination format because if you have a rough day then you could go 0-2 (meaning play twice, lose twice and be out) and only play a couple of matches. The round robin + single elimination ensures everyone gets to play lots of games, which in turn is way more fun. Even if you do end up finishing last, you still got to play a ton.
These were the two teams that made it to the championship round — Team Topps (Antwome Topps, Jody Vinson, Lesli Toubassi, and Chris Wilson) and 1 Right 3 Wrongs (Caesar Naftzger, Cindy Egan, Vickie Hancock, and Cory Sager). It was a really tight match. Actually, all of the matches were super close and some matches even came down to a point or two.
Team Topps prevailed that day with their solid play. Congratulations to all! Can’t wait until we do this again. Noi?
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Mother’s Day 2022
Posted on June 14, 2022 by Ching under Community, Pickleball.
I spend so much time at Chicken N Pickle that it was only fitting that I spent my Mother’s Day there. They had the best Mother’s Day brunch and mimosa bar!
They had various fruit juices that you could use to mix with champagne and a wide array of fruits for flavor and garnish. It made me want to throw a mimosa party at my house but then I thought of all the work to prep all those fruits and I was like, “I’ll just wait until they have another one of these.” LOL.
These were the best mimosas ever!
Here’s a picture of Huyen’s breakfast. She got the Mother’s Day skillet.
Here’s Huyen double-fisting the mimosas.
FUN FACT — When I first met Huyen a couple of years ago, I found out that I am bout the same age as her mother. Since her mother doesn’t play pickleball and I don’t have a child, we’ve kind of adopted each other. Plus, most people who see us think we are mother-and-daughter anyway so we decided to just roll with it.
We played in the Mother’s Day tournament at Chicken N Pickle and played against “real” mother-and-daughter duo Stacy and Brittney Wessley. It was so much fun! Specially since Huyen and I finally got to wear one of our matching skirts.
This fall, Huyen and I will get to play in a real tournament together when we play in the Tulsa Pickleball Classic. I can’t wait to see how many more people we can convince that we’re mother and daughter. LOL.
Until next time, GNG.
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Picklemania MMXXII
Posted on June 11, 2022 by Ching under Community, Pickleball.
Our second annual pickleball tournament for the Rotary Club of Andover was a huge success. We engaged several sponsors this year that allowed us to provide shirts for our players and volunteers and just make the tournament 100x better. We decided to go with a team-style tournament this year, which meant fewer teams/players, but turned out to be way more fun because then the tournament wasn’t too serious.
Lesli Toubassi provided some breakfast power bars and cinnamon rolls from Great Harvest Bread Co. Nick Gerstner (owner of Tea Taze) provided tea. Bryce Lob provided three bottles of Una Vida Tequila. Gamma Sports gave us some overgrips.
Besides in-kind sponsors, we received monetary support from the following generous people/companies:
- PRESENTING SPONSOR — Palomino Petroleum
- T-SHIRT SPONSORS
- — Chicken N Pickle
- — CoreNorth Capital Planning
- — Expert Auto Center
- — Royal Caribbean/Sunflower Travel
- NET SPONSOR — Verity Jet
We also had a couple of teams travel from out of town to play in the tournament. One was a team that fellow Rotarian Kumar Krishnan put together. Kumar, along with Brent and Karen Taylor and Deana Holman, traveled from Bartlesville, Oklahoma to complete. They went by the team name Cucumbers.
The other team that traveled a good distance to play was Did Someone Say Unlimited Drinks? From left: David Gleason, Karly Gleason (formerly Williams), Liz Sharp, and Ian Wright.
I actually didn’t think these guys were going to make it. I got a text late on Friday night that they had a flat tire in Emporia. As it turns out, the key for the lugs weren’t in the car so they couldn’t replace the tire. They ended up towing the car back to Kansas City and changing vehicles. They made it to Wichita around 1 AM.
They are such troopers! I’m glad they made it. Otherwise, we would have missed seeing their awesome team shirts that Liz made.
I think everyone had a great time, except maybe Krystal Fosnight, who rolled her ankle in the first round of bracket play. Their team, The Experts, consisting of Tom Pham, Huyen Nguyen, and Tommy Chau had a really good shot at winning their pool also. I think they were just behind Klee Watchous and Chris Heck’s team in pool play.
Don’t worry, Krystal’s ankle is pretty much all better. She even won gold in 4.5 Mixed Doubles with her partner Hanbeen You in the ICT Classic pickleball tournament this past weekend.
As far as the tournament went, Patti Mackey made us eight medals so we could have two sets of winners. After the pool play, we divided the 16 teams into 2 pools of 8 teams each. There was an upper pool and a lower pool.
Dinkers and Bongers (from left: Ryan Kellenbarger, Krista Crawford, Chandi Bongers, and Bo Tolbert) defeated the CoreNorth team consisting of Ryan and Renae DeSantis and Dave and Lori Belew to win their division.
There were lots of upsets in the upper division. First, with the Blazing Paddles team (consisting of Heather Griffin, Mike Ellison, Noi Sourinthone, and Amy Jaramillo pictured below) eliminating Palomino Petroleum (Chris Heck, Klee Watchous, Melissa Youngers, and Lacy Waugh – not pictured) but then falling to 1 Small 3 Mediums (next picture).
The upper division champions (from left): Ian Carr, Fong Witte, Jen Reifschneider, and Ev Kim. Honestly, the tournament was stacked with amazing players and teams this year, anyone could have won but I think Palomino Petroleum was the favorite going in.
For a fun, charity tournament, this one was full of talented players which made the matches very competitive, which I think, made it even more fun for everyone. Of course, the unlimited drinks was a great draw as well. The players and spectators got breakfast treats, lunch, and pretty much all the mimosas, margaritas, and beer they could drink. Maybe that’s why Chris’ team didn’t win. LOL.
Anyway, I am so grateful to everyone who came to support our event (by playing, spectating, or volunteering), most specially these two: Brian and Jody Vinson. For someone who doesn’t enjoy pickleball and isn’t even a Rotarian, Brian was there from 6:30 AM all the way to the tear down at the end. And, Jody just makes tournaments run super smoothly. I’m so glad she was there to help me.
The event helped us raise over $6,000 toward our club service projects. Last year, we didn’t have any sponsors so we only raised $1,200. The sponsors really came through for us this year. The event was a huge success and I’m looking forward to having it again next year. Until next time, GNG.
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