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.
Related Stories
« Trying a New Coffee Shop « this post » First Call at 6S Steakhouse »
