EPIC Pickleball Tournament 2025
Posted on May 23, 2025 by Ching under Pickleball.
We had another successful pickleball tournament for the Wichita Children’s Home at the Wichita Country Club again this year. It was EPIC!
Here are highlights from the event last year and highlights from the 2023 event. This was my fifth year helping with the event (my first year was 2021).
I usually team up with my friend Jody Vinson but she was busy with other commitments this year so our team consisted of Michael Bond, and Bryce and Lindsey McClung. They really are the backbone of this event. They help year after year, I think even before I started helping. Sometimes they even get roped into playing like when Harvey Self had to leave in the middle of the tournament last year. This year Bryce actually signed up to play – intentionally.
There are a couple of Spring (early Summer) tournaments that I help with annually. EPIC (formerly It’s a Big Dill) and the Rotary Club of Andover’s Picklemania event. EPIC happens in April and then Picklemania in May. Here are highlights from a past Picklemania tournament:
Recently people have been asking me if Picklemania is happening — because it is that time of year. Unfortunately, I had to step away from it this year and there really wasn’t anyone in our Rotary club who had the interest or capacity to take it over. I normally start planning for the May event around November/December but, as many of you know, that was during Brian’s cancer treatments so I didn’t really feel like doing anything. I didn’t want to think of anything.
It was a tournament that I’ve been really passionate about. However, since my friend Ryan DeSantis and Chris McGill, the two members who were very passionate about hosting the pickleball tournament fundraiser for our club, have left the club, much of the responsibility for planning and organizing and facilitating the event ended up falling to me. Honestly, I was feeling burnt out. I didn’t even feel like doing it last year except Chris Heck (another friend who had helped with our tournament in the past) said it wasn’t happening so I took it as a challenge. LOL. If people don’t want to help me, fine. But, if I want something to happen, I can make it happen. I truly believed that. Of course, that’s because I have Brian and he is equivalent to having 10 volunteers. I realize now that I can do and achieve all the things because I have him by my side.
When Brian got sick and I no longer had my one person I could truly count on for anything and everything, it made me realize just how challenging it is do all the things without his help. I didn’t even want to think doing Picklemania without him. I think I was burnt out.
I’m still happy to help with pickleball tournaments and fundraising events, just not to the extent I was doing. It was too much. Anyway, the next pickleball fundraising event is Picklepalooza which benefits both Senior Services of Wichita and Wichita Cancer Foundation this year. It’s on Friday, June 6, at Chicken N Pickle. You can learn more about and register for the event here. Hope to see you all there.
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