Pickleballers unite to support Eaton fire recovery efforts – and each other

On a recent sunny Sunday morning, pickleball enthusiasts — both amateur and expert — filled the iPickle courts at Arcadia County Park. But it wasn’t just the typical weekend rush of players looking to secure a court.

Young and Healthy, a Pasadena healthcare nonprofit, called for pickleball players to participate in their Pickleball Palooza tournament, with over 130 registered.

The tournament also serves as the organization’s annual fundraiser, which will go to the programs that serve uninsured and underserved children and families. Since January, the organization has directed a large part of its programs toward those impacted by the Eaton fire.

The fundraiser, which also auctioned off Rose Parade tickets, a Day at The Huntington Tea Gardens and more, raised a total of $187,000.

Shelley Boyle and Liz Arnold, the organization’s co-directors, conceptualized the idea of a pickleball tournament well before the January wildfires. But upon learning that the pickleball courts at Farnsworth Park were closed due to the Eaton fire, they decided to make tickets to Pickleball Palooza free to those impacted by the closure.

“I think the reason we’re doing this is because people are outdoors, they’re having fun,” said Arnold. “They’re going to take their minds off everything that’s going on in the world right now and just be here together,” added Boyle.

The tournament also offered a free clinic alongside the tournament where anyone over eight years old can learn how to play.

Over the years, an increasing number of tennis courts in the U.S. either converted to pickleball courts or shared a space with them. Many factors contributed to the growing popularity of the sport, which grew exponentially at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mike Alvidrez, who played in the tournament, epitomizes pickleball’s devoted following. When asked how many times per week the Pasadena resident and Pickleball USA ambassador plays, he quipped: “how many days are there in a week?”

He pointed to what makes the sport so welcoming: affordable equipment, easy-to-learn rules and an intimacy fostered by players’ closer proximity.

At the beginning of the pandemic, players could spend time together outside while still maintaining the required six-feet difference. Alvidrez thinks that people are more likely to drop their workplace demeanor and develop friendships quicker with pickleball, creating opportunities for social connection during a time the entire world was ordered to isolate.

Those same factors are what kept the pickleball community strong in the Foothills after the Eaton fire.

Like the COVID 19 pandemic, the fires created an appetite for social connection, Alvidrez said.

Alvidrez isn’t your typical pickleball player; he also manages a sprawling network of 600 pickleball players, who he communicates with regularly via email over things like court maintenance or requests for shade at parks.

Over time, as that community became more tight-knit, Alvidrez became a more trusted figure in their lives. So when the Eaton fire struck, Alvidrez found himself sending up to four email blasts per day on how to get assistance, where to find food and clothing and details about permits and insurance.

“It’s one of those things where this network, based on friendship, served an entirely new role,” said Alvidrez. He mentioned another prominent pickleball player, Joy Chen, who transformed a local pickleball WhatsApp groupchat into the Eaton Fire Survivors Network, which now contains more than 8,500 members.

Earlier this year, Alvidrez helped organize a pickleball-related benefit for Eaton fire survivors.

“You lose your home. You lose your social network,” Alvidrez began. “We just wanted to try and reinstate that social connection just to take a breather from all the stuff, like fighting with the insurance company.”

Fran Blayney and Mary Brennan, two Eagle Rock senior citizens who participated in the Pickleball Palooza, said the sport is a great stress relief – both from the fires and current affairs.

The Eaton fire forced them to evacuate their home, and people close to them lost houses.

Brennan’s t-shirt, emblazoned with “Altadena,” made clear where her heart was.