Archive for "Community"
Picklemania MMXXI
Posted on July 1, 2021 by Ching under Community, Events, Hobbies.
My Rotary club held our first pickleball fundraising tournament a couple of weeks ago at Terradyne Country Club and it was a huge success. We had a goal of 64 players (32 teams) and we actually had 70 players sign up.
Here are some pictures from the tournament.
We had eight courts for the tournament so we had two brackets going in the morning and also two brackets in the afternoon. In the morning, we had a competitive bracket and also an all women’s bracket.
I loved how some of the ladies wore matching outfits like Michelle Pease and Lesli Toubassi (aka Tou Pease in a Pod).
Karen Fox and Jody Vinson (aka Drop It Like It’s Hot) won the women’s bracket.
As you can tell, we love our Electrum paddles.
After a long championship battle against Kim Knotts and Chris Heck (aka FSU) that ran all the way past lunch, Lori and Dave Belew (aka Notorious D.I.N.K.) won the competitive bracket in the morning.
My friend Erica and I won our bracket in the afternoon, which felt a little silly to me. I think I won’t play in the future. Mostly I signed up because I wasn’t sure if we could get enough players.
Erica and I wore our matching BIA shoes for Steve. LOL.
Mike Ellison and Adam Korfhage (aka Mike and Adam) won the all men’s doubles bracket in the afternoon.
I am so grateful to everyone who played, volunteered, and came out to support our event. I’m look forward to making this an annual fundraising event for our club.
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Rotary Luncheons are Back
Posted on June 23, 2021 by Ching under Community.
It’s so great to have our in-person Rotary meetings again. The past year has been a real challenge. It was difficult to engage club members without meeting on a regular basis. I hope with regular programming, everyone will start coming back.
Last week we had a great presentation from Jenny Shipman with the Alzheimer’s Association. She shared information about the diseases and helpful tips on how we can reduce our risk. While no one is immune from aging, there are several things we can do now like exercising, eating well, being social, and stimulating our minds by learning new things and doing brain puzzles.
We have several great speakers visiting our club over the next couple of months. I’m hoping that we will start to see our members at the meetings again. Here’s to a great Rotary year.
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Wichita Pickleball Now Has an Official Website
Posted on May 3, 2021 by Ching under Community, Hobbies.
Meet Bill Mitchell. The man who inspired the new ictpickleball.com website.
I met Bill while checking out McAdams Recreation Center a couple of weeks ago. As with all the new people I meet, I encouraged him to join the Wichita Pickleball Facebook group to connect with other pickleball players in the area. There’s only one problem. He doesn’t have a Facebook account. This isn’t the first time I’ve heard this response. A lot of people these days are not Facebook. It got me thinking, how do we reach people who, like Bill Mitchell, are not on Facebook?
I came to one logical conclusion: we needed a website. And so ictpickleball.com was born. I had a couple of hours to spare and unused hosting space on brubakers.us so I made a simple website using WordPress. I purchased the ictpickleball.com domain from Go Daddy for less than $20 and then just forwarded the domain to the new WordPress site on my existing host.
Along with this, I also started an email list for those who want to stay informed. So now people who do not have Facebook accounts will have a way to keep up with what’s happening in our pickleball community without having to become part of the Wichita Pickleball Facebook group.
I don’t know why it took me a couple of years to do this. I think mostly I was too busy before and only recently had time to really think about things. Anyway, it’s live now and I hope that people find it useful.
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Vaccine Awareness Initiative
Posted on April 28, 2021 by Ching under Community, Projects.
Assistant District Governor Arlen Honts visited the Rotary Club of Andover last week and talked to us about the #RotarySharingSmiles project. Rotarian DeAnn Sullivan came up with the idea when she saw a yard display on her way to her sister’s house one day. She came up with the idea for Rotary to make our own signs to brighten other people’s day while also promoting vaccine awareness.
Here are some pictures that I took at the Rotary luncheon last week.
It was our first in person Rotary meeting in a long time. There were only eight of us who attended but it was nice to see everyone there. Our club has really struggled with virtual meetings so I’m hoping that things will begin to return to normal and we can start in person meetings again.
I’m grateful for Arlen visiting our club and talking to us about this initiative. Kudos to DeAnn for coming up with such a great idea!
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It’s a Big Dill 2021
Posted on April 23, 2021 by Ching under Community, Events.
I had the opportunity to help with the Wichita Children’s Home It’s a Big Dill! pickleball tournament this past weekend. The event was fantastic and the organizers did a fabulous job. Here are a few pictures.
The event was a huge success and, even though I didn’t get to play this year, I am so glad I got to be part of it. I need to make sure I’m free on the weekend of the event because I definitely want to play in it next year. Until next time. GNG.
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