It is a fact. Every day twenty-two United States armed forces veterans take their own lives. Death by suicide is a leading cause of death for the men and women who return home with PTSD, unable to shake the terrible memories of what they’ve experienced. It is a tragedy that this country has been too slow to acknowledge and address the problem.
Alex Fox served in Afghanistan and is intimately familiar with the conditions under which many of our troops serve. Not long ago he became aware of a group called Platoon 22, which was organized in Frederick, Maryland after the suicides of two veterans who lived in the area. Their purpose is to end veteran suicide through the successful reintegration of service members and their families by assembling critical resources, providing peer support, and developing transitional programs.
The mission of Platoon 22 is lofty, and lofty missions take money. Last weekend, The Landings Club sponsored the Battle of the Branches, a two-day pickleball tournament to raise money for Platoon 22. The tournament was successful as we raised more than $11,000, over half of which came from Alex’s promise to shave his beard if we hit $5,000. We did, so he did, so everyone was a winner.
The tournament was terrific. Most, but not all of the teams came from The Landings Club and Savannah Golf Club, and the level of play was extremely high. In fact, it seems with each tournament we host the competition bar keeps rising. But in the case of this tournament, the rising bar was not the attention grabber. The day before the tournament started, Brett and Lauren Stanton loaded their sons Zach and Conor in the car at 0430 and left their home in Manhasset on Long Island for a fifteen plus hour drive to their home at The Landings. Zach, 14, is in the 8th grade, his brother Conor, 12, is one grade below. While tennis is their favorite sport, they play soccer, run track and swim as well. The brothers discovered pickleball in 2020 during the COVID pandemic when the nation’s schools shut down and learning became remote. When in Savannah they play as often as possible.
Zach and Conor played at the 3.0 level, and while they didn’t garner any medals, they did earn a lot of respect. It is not often you see brothers playing competitively against people their parents age or older who, mostly retired, have time to play pickleball regularly. The guys held their own and stayed poised against teams with far more experience. They should be very proud of their performance; it was impressive. Their parents, Brett and Lauren, deserve kudos as well. They took gold in their category in mix doubles.
All in, it was another successful Landings Club tournament. We raised a lot of money for Platoon 22, an extremely worthy organization, and had the opportunity to watch the next generation of pickleball stars strut their stuff. It don’t get no better than that.