Things to Do

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10 Years as a Rotarian

Posted on April 21, 2024 by Ching under Community, Things to Do.

This year marks my 10th year as a Rotarian. I joined in 2014 when I was looking to be more involved in the community. At the time my office was located at Douglas and Broadway so I was originally looking at the Rotary Club of Wichita which meets on Mondays at Botanica. However, they already had 400 members (and a few from my company) so my joining wasn’t likely to make much of a difference.

Living in Southeast Wichita, I was close to the Andover branch of the Greater Wichita YMCA so I was working there as a group fitness instructor in my off time. I also had a coworker David Austin, who was a member of the Rotary Club of Andover, and he invited me to visit. It was a small club consisting of only twenty or so members. Anyway, I ended up joining the Andover club because I felt like I would make much more of an impact there.

For such a small club, the Andover Rotary does a lot. We’ve contributed to so many things in the Andover community and internationally. We’ve also partnered with other Rotary clubs in the Wichita area on several initiatives. You can find out more about our club’s current and past projects here

Last month we sponsored food packing at Christ Church – East in partnership with the Outreach Program. Club members, along with volunteers from the church, Boy Scouts of America, and National Honors Society, participated in this community service project. The boxes of food packaged were donated to the Andover Community Food Pantry, Butler Community College Food Pantry, and Christ Church’s own ministry with North High School.

Last week Rotary Club of Andover school mini grant recipients for the 2023-2024 school year (five teachers from the Andover school district along with their students) presented their community service projects to the club.

I am so grateful to be part of a club that makes an impact in our community both directly (through our own community service projects) and indirectly by supporting and funding the projects of others. The school mini grant program is particularly meaningful because it encourages our youth to get involved in their community.

If you would like to learn more about our club, and/or support our projects and initiatives, we have a fundraising event next month at Crestview Country Club. It’s our annual team pickleball tournament. Spectator tickets (which cover lunch and drinks) are available for purchase here. We will also be raffling off some awesome prizes at the event. I hope you can make it.

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Newbie Night at Chicken N Pickle

Posted on March 25, 2024 by Ching under Pickleball, Things to Do.

I’m on a mission to get all of my friends.. Scratch that. I’m on a mission to get every single person I meet into pickleball. Recently, I met a couple of friends (Jarrica Briedenthal, a friend from Zumba, and Teresa Winfield, an former coworker) at Chicken N Pickle for Newbie Night.

Me and Jarrica

Me and Teresa

Michael Harris, director of pickleball at our Chicken N Pickle in Wichita, did a wonderful job of leading the session.

Newbie Nights are a great way to introduce friends to pickleball because of the fun casual environment. Besides that, they also provide all the equipment so you don’t even have to have your own paddle. Most people who are eager to get into the sport have already bought a starter set from Amazon and usually show up with their own paddles but it is not required.

I remember dragging mom and dad, and even some of my Leadership Wichita classmates, to a Newbie Night a couple of years ago when they were first getting into pickleball also. Anyway, if you would like to check it out, the next one is on Tuesday, April 16.

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Team League at West YMCA

Posted on March 15, 2024 by Ching under Pickleball, Things to Do.

I played in the first ever team league at West YMCA and it was such a traumatic experience. Just kidding. It was so much fun. The only thing that sucked about it was that I’ve had the yips since the beginning of the year and so all my servers were basically points for the other team. That wasn’t the league’s fault.

Here are some pics that we took throughout the league.

Susie Ternes and I wore our blue Halara dresses on one of the days. I absolutely love this dress but I just hate being so short because it’s sooo long on me! Anyways, if you shop at thehalara.com, remember to use discount code CHERRIE for 20% OFF! (Discount doesn’t work on SALE items but works on everything else.)

Here are a couple of pictures of Austin Winter and Matt Von Feldt. I love that these boys were into being matchy-matchy also.

I really struggled this league because of the rally scoring and my yips situation. Because I couldn’t serve, we were pretty much playing with a handicap. We didn’t perform well enough to be in the upper division so we ended up in the lower division on tournament night (final week of league) and we ended up winning that division. I think it was kind of a blessing because I’m not sure we could have won the other group. So at least we medaled. That’s the silver-lining, anyway.

This kind of reminds me of last year’s Picklemania tournament. My team missed the elite group by mere points (we were in the toughest pool with three teams with the potential to advance to elite and we ended up being third) and then ended up in advanced group. We obviously won it because we really should have been in elite but just got edged out. LOL.

Speaking of Picklemania, we are having it again this year. This year’s event will be at Crestview Country Club on May 25. Hope to see you there!

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Holiday Pop-Ups Recap

Posted on January 4, 2024 by Ching under Things to Do.

I missed Sparky’s again this year but I’m pretty sure I set a new record for hitting holiday pop-up bars this holiday season.

The other night we went to Holiday Hideaway at Chicken N Pickle to celebrate Jenny Cole and Bobby Weisbrodt’s birthdays. Bobby’s was on December 30 and Jenny’s was on January 3 so the two of them decided to celebrate together on Tuesday, January 2. It worked out great because I was actually free that day.

It was a lot of fun and the festive drinks were yummy but there are so many holiday pop-up bar options these days. It seems like all the restaurants are trying to out-do each other. I think my favorite thing at Holiday Hideaway is the martini flight that’s served in bear glasses on a Chicken N Pickle snowboard. So cute and, for $20, not a bad deal at all.

The other pop-up I got to check out this year were:

Snow Globe at River City Brewery (twice)
Jingle at Public at the Brickyard (also twice)
Bigloo at Nortons Brewing Company

Here’s a video highlight from my second visit to Jingle:

That night was quite wild. I hadn’t been out that late in a really long time. We shut down the restaurant and, by the time we left, the Old Town road barricades were down. I’m not usually out that late so I didn’t even know that was thing.

Having visited all these pop-ups, I must say that Jingle is my favorite because they have a DJ on Friday nights which makes the atmosphere extra fun and festive. And, out of all the holiday drinks I’ve drank, the Papa Noel is my fave.

Anyway, now that it’s January most of the holiday pop-ups have wrapped up for the season. Looking forward to hitting all these places (and then some) again next year. Until then, happy New Year to all!

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Jingle with the Belles

Posted on December 21, 2023 by Ching under Food and Drink, Things to Do.

We had so much fun at Snow Globe at River City Brewery a couple of weeks ago that I’ve decided to make it my mission to check out as many holiday pop-ups as I can. This week I hit Jingle (Public at the Brickyard’s holiday pop-up) with my some of my favorite pickleball ladies.