Our small Community of Alexandria is located 50 kilometers south of Quesnel. Though there is not much infrastructure here, we do have a small Hall. The Alexandria Community Hall has been a gathering place in our community for over 75 years, and provides us with the perfect venue for activities. I was approached by a community member with the idea to start a pickle ball club. Keith had the experience and expertise (he knew the rules and was willing to teach us) to share this sport with us.
We used our grant funds to purchase pickleball paddles, balls and a net to get is started. We soon realized that the temporary tape lines that we wanted to use would not stick to the aging floor in the hall. We received permission to paint lines for our pickleball court from the hall executive and Keith donated his time and supplies to make this happen.
On May 15th, we hosted an open house pickleball event where people could come and try the sport out, meet up with community members who are also interested, and gather as a community. Our turn out was small, but the word started to spread and we held four more pickleball drop in nights. We had all ages attend from our youngest player who was 5 to seniors from our community.
This grant allowed us to overcome the main hurdle of equiptment for this event. It is much easier for people to have the opportunity to try out this sport before they buy their own paddles. Additionally, the community hall allowed us to use the space free of charge for the summer months to help get this community activity started.
The popularity of pickleball is growing in our community, and from our initial event, pickleball nights are contingent on our community. We are very thankful for the Neighbourhood small grant that helped us get started.
