Archive for "Community"
Spread HopeICT Event
Posted on June 10, 2022 by Ching under Community, Health.
Here are some pictures from HopeNet’s Spread HopeICT event at Chicken N Pickle last month. The purpose of the panel is to promote positive youth mental health and support for suicide awareness and prevention.
We ran into Judy and Malachi Nola.
And also Jo Lynn Bright, HopeNet’s Director of Community Impact.
I felt overwhelming emotion upon seeing Jo Lynn. She was my most favorite EMPAC counselor and helped me work through some issues 12 years ago. It was so great to see her again and to know that she continues to make a difference for so many through the HopeNet organization.
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Pickleball Kickoff Party at Crestview
Posted on June 6, 2022 by Ching under Community, Events, Pickleball.
Crestview Country Club is going all-in with pickleball. Last month they hosted a super fun kickoff party to (re)introduce pickleball to members and unveil their newly painted courts.
They did such a great job of decorating for the party.
Here are a few pictures from the event…
Shout out to Jeff Kenworthy (DJ/KJ Entertainment) for providing awesome tunes at the party. If you have an event, be sure to hire him!
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Lunch with Denise Neil
Posted on May 6, 2022 by Ching under Community, Food and Drink.
It’s not everyday that I get to have local celebrity so, of course, I’m documenting this. Well, actually, I document any time I eat anywhere so I guess the post is not that special but the person is – for sure!
As per my usual MO, I only got pictures of our food so there are no pictures of the two of us. I know, “Pictures or it didn’t happen.” You’re just going to have to take my word for it that I got to have lunch with THE Denise Neil.
Denise and I met at La Galette. This place is so good and it is so close to one of my favorite pickleball hangouts (Seneca Park). I really don’t know why I don’t go more often. Probably because I’m mostly hanging out with guys who always want to go to TJ’s instead. TJ’s does have the good rootbeer float.
Anyway, here’s what I had that day: chicken salad sandwich in a croissant and chips. Denise had a quiche and salad.
They also randomly delivered some cookies and a cup of French onion soup to our table. I wondered if it was because they were trying to impress Denise, who is kind of a big deal. I mean, she’s a household name around here.
I’m not really into French onion soup, though I’m sure it’s very good, so it remained untouched. We were busy with conversation and enjoying the food that we did order that neither of us ended up eating the cookies either during lunch either. I did take those back to work and shared them with my friend Chris Townley.
One of the best things about having lunch with Denise, besides the good conversation, is that she makes me feel totally normal. She takes pictures of her food too! One can never have too many food pictures and we sat by a window so we had excellent natural light. Anyway, are alike in that way. No one really understands my obsession with take food pics but she gets it.
I first met Denise through Twitter back in 2008 — the early days — but we hadn’t really done anything together since the Wichita Eagle dining panel ten years ago. I follow her on social media and we see each other at events like the Wichita Orpheum’s Celebrity & Chef Cookoff (not as much the last couple of years because of the pandemic). She did speak to my Rotary club last year to promote her book. Other than that, we’ve only really seen each other a few times.
Recently, she’s gotten into pickleball (as with the rest of the world) and someone referred her to me, which was perfect because we already knew each other. It made sense because everyone knows I am completely obsessed with the sport and it has consumed my life over the last three years. Conversation at lunch centered around pickleball which is one of my favorite topics to talk about — even to people who really don’t care to hear about it. Anyway, as someone who is new to the sport, she had a genuine curiosity and I was more than happy to fill the gaps.
Denise is now officially part of our Wichita Pickleball Facebook group that’s about 2,200 strong and I cannot wait to see her on the pickleball courts!
Until next time, GNG.
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My Friend Chris Wilson
Posted on April 12, 2022 by Ching under Community, Pickleball.
I attended a safety meeting at one of our service locations last week and ran into my friend Chris Wilson. I met Chris through pickleball and played with him for months (yes, MONTHS) before I realized that we both worked for the same company. Of course, we were working at different locations so we never ran into one another.
It wasn’t until another pickleball friend (Paul Haas), who worked for the same company, retired that I found out Chris worked at Evergy also. I was looking for someone to play pickleball with me for the Wichita Corporate Challenge and I asked Paul to play because I knew of his Evergy connection, having recently celebrated his retirement. However, Paul was like, “Why don’t you ask Chris? He still works for Evergy.” That’s how I found out. I totally had no idea we were employed by the same company until then. But then, I guess that’s what happens when your company employs over 5,000 people. You don’t really know anyone.
Anyway, Chris has been my “go to” guy for anything pickleball-related that the company sponsors. Evergy chose not to participate in the Wichita Corporate Challenge last year but, had we participated, I would have asked Chris to play with me. With the increasing popularity of the sport, more and more people are work are getting into pickleball so I guess we might have to do tryouts next time. But, back when I first discovered pickleball, I only knew of Chris and Paul and me.
When I first discovered pickleball, Paul and Chris had already been playing a long while. I was a beginner playing at West YMCA when I found Paul’s church on the West side of town — a super secret place to play pickleball that’s not even listed on Playtime Scheduler. It was my first time there and everyone knew I was not any good but they were nice enough and let me play anyway. On my very first game, they paired me with “the best guy there” — because that’s what you do with the worst player, in order to make the games more fair — and that was literally my introduction to Chris. For a long time, he was the best player I knew.
Shortly after (I’m still very much a beginner) he asked me to play in a tournament with him. It happened to be the Senior Games. At the time, I couldn’t decide if I should be flattered that he felt I was good enough to play with him or if I should be offended that he thought I was old enough to play in “senior” events.
Once I had a bit more experience, we did end up playing in some tournaments together — both sanctioned and unsanctioned — besides just the Wichita Corporate Challenge and charity tournaments. We even teamed up for Middle States Regionals. Although, it wasn’t longer after that when I got benched. Chris decided he needed a more “age appropriate” partner. By age appropriate, I mean someone who could play in 50+ events with him.
The bigger tournaments have both age and skill divisions such as 19+, 35+, 50+ and so forth. I guess he was tired of playing 35+ with me, specially when he could do so much better in 50+ events. To be fair to all competitors, players can play down in age but they can’t play up so I could not play 50+ with him. If we played together, he would have to play down to 35+ with me. It really didn’t make any sense when there were several 50+ players he could team up with.
The dissolution of our partnership was an amicable one and it actually proved beneficial to me because it gave me the opportunity to play with some higher level mixed doubles partners. It’s great to have a “young buck” with young legs to play with in younger age groups. Anyway, despite having divorced each other, Chris and I still team up from time to time for events like the Picklepalooza. And maybe the Wichita Corporate Challenge again this year (if there aren’t any other employees who want to represent our company).
Even though we have both moved on and are playing with different partners competitively (we actually had to face off against each other not too long ago in the Oak Tree tournament in Edmond), Chris is still one of may favorite pickleball players to play with and against. He’s good people and I am grateful that he has been part of my pickleball journey.
Until next time, GNG.
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Raising Money for LLS
Posted on March 21, 2022 by Ching under Community, Events, Pickleball.
The pickleball community came together for a great cause earlier this month. On March 6, LLS Students of the Year candidate Josie Morris hosted a pickleball tournament at Chicken N Pickle to raise money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. As you can tell from this short video, everyone had a great time and the tournament was a huge success!
I am pretty sure Chris Heck had the most fun out of everyone. He was drinking the entire time! I don’t think there was ever a moment that he didn’t have a beer in his hand. Actually, he wasn’t playing with beer in hand (that’s a totally different pickleball tournament) but his drink was always close by so he could take a drink every couple of points.
The funny thing is, he wasn’t even supposed to play with me. I had signed up for Noi Sourinthone, my friend from Tennessee who recently moved to Wichita run pickleball programs for the city, and I to play together. However, he ended up having to fly back to Tennessee for a funeral the weekend of the tournament so he had Chris take his spot.
It worked out great that we already had matching shirts. Karen thought I had them made special but they are actually shirts we had from 2020. In fact, they are so old that rule #2 on the back is now wrong and needs to be revised.
Chris and I ended up winning the tournament. Chris is one of the best players in Wichita so the outcome wasn’t a surprise. I think it would have been more of a shock if we didn’t win. Although, I think the result would have been the same had Noi been able to play. Being new in town, he hasn’t met everyone and they have no idea what an amazing pickleball player he is.
Besides raising money for LLS, my main goal that day was not to let Noi down. I was goofing around mostly and almost messed it up. Thankfully, I had a great partner and we ended up taking first place and earning a couple of gift cards to 6S Steakhouse donated by our friend Jen Reifschneider, who is the executive chef at the restaurant. You’ll probably remember her as the old executive chef at Woodfire Grille at the Kansas Star Casino.
Last night, a bunch of us got together for dinner at 6S to support Jen’s restaurant and also so Chris and I could use our gift cards. However, Chris forgot to bring his gift card so I guess we’ll just have to go back. LOL.
6S is a special occasion sort of place but, if you go during “first call” from 4:30 to 6:00 pm when they have $5 drinks and $8 appetizers, you can actually get out of there without spending too much. I might have to take Brian there on a date another night soon. Until then, GNG.
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