This week you parents and kids are invited to read along.  You will notice 19 of the 22 humans in the accompanying photo are grandparents.  In fact, a few are great-grandparents.  You will also notice the picture was taken at the new Pickleball Complex, which was a field at the beginning of the summer.  There are two pads: the East Pad and the West Pad.  Each pad has four courts making a total of eight great courts for our community.

You don’t have to be a grandparent to play.  You know how your grandparents ask for technical advice when one of their devices acts up.  Well, you can now ask a grandparent for advice on how to play pickleball, even getting into the technical stuff like how to keep score; what is the difference between an outdoor and an indoor ball, when is dinking the right thing to do, etc…. There are lots of technical details in this game.  Technical details your grandpa or grandma might know.

Grandparents are an interesting bunch.  They know how to laugh, play and throw a paddle or two, but the most important thing you can learn from them is how to get things done.  Lance Tripp on the City Council, who is a grandpa, got a group together and named them the Pickleball Committee.  The first thing the Committee did was elect Rebecca Firth as the Committee Chair.  She kept things going, was the first one at the work site, and brought cookies.  The City committed to financial help but could not afford to finance the whole project. So, Lance and the Committee went to work looking for help.  It seems like people want to be part of something bigger than themselves, and not all of them were grandparents!  Hess Pumice, Non-typical Excavation, Nucor Steel, AARP Idaho, Messerly Construction, Parsons Cement, Ace Hardware, Malad Rock Products, Malad Recreation, and the City all came through in a big way, but perhaps the real key to the project was Rex Robbins. 

Rex, who is a grandpa, was on the Committee and has construction experience.  He and Dave Colton, also a committee member, taught the rest of us how to put in forms, tie rebar, work cement, and be nice while we did it.  Our resumes have expanded, and the field has turned into a Pickleball Complex.  Rex, whacked the first ball over the net on Wednesday, August 16.  Then, the 22 in the picture played on the East Pad for what turned out to be a Good Life morning.

Now, in case you think it was easy, it wasn’t, and it’s not over yet.  We are so grateful to those of you who have already donated.  The donation list is long and donors will be recognized, but we still owe $25,000+.  We hope the whole town will come and play, and we hope if you haven’t donated you will.  Just stop by the City Office and leave a check or Venmo Oneida Recreation and designate your gift for pickleball.  You’ll be part of something bigger than youself and help us all live The Good Life!    PS: No black soled shoes on the courts, please!