If you are an avid pickler, you share an expensive habit with golfers. What golf fanatic doesn’t have a garage filled with hot new clubs from years past that promised longer drives, better chips and easier exits from bunkers. We blame our lousy games on the clubs, but when the newest guaranteed stroke reducer doesn’t deliver as promised, it’s banished to the garage where it sits, unused and gathering dust, sometimes for years. The quest for perfection continues when the next miracle model is introduced, and so on, and so on until acceptance of our mediocracy replaces our hopes for a lower handicap future.
Pickleball is a relatively new phenomenon, so new miracle paddles are introduced with startling regularity. Paddles guaranteeing more power, a more effective soft game or more consistent serves are regularly touted in The Dink, the online pickleball magazine. Many new models can be found in the Courts Sports Pro Shop. Do they really help your game? Maybe, who knows? But when we invest in new paddles, it means, like old golf clubs, the old paddles are destined for lonely futures, tucked away in the garage collecting dust.
The Landings Club has been a major supporter of Special Pops Pickleball for more than five years. Special Pops Tennis was first introduced to The Landings by Doug and Mary Smith seventeen years ago. Landings Club member and USAPickleball SE GA District Ambassador, Elison McAllaster, was instrumental in making pickleball a Special Pops sport at The Landings Club five years ago. She has also been instrumental in introducing pickleball to the Special Olympics.
An impressive number of Landings picklers volunteer their time as coaches to help special needs pickleball players develop their games. They do this by holding clinics at Franklin Creek. The clinics are often well attended by individuals who, while they may have challenges, are no less enthusiastic about the game.
As golfers know, one way to get more life out of those clubs sitting abandoned in the garage is to donate them to First Tee, which uses them to introduce young players to the game of golf. It is an extremely effective organization. Why not donate old, unused paddles to be used in Special Pops and Special Olympics clinics? They don’t have to be new, state of the art paddles. They do need to be in good shape. Not only will you be cleaning out clutter in the garage, you will be helping to support an extremely worthy cause.
To watch the joy with which the players indulge in their sport is ample reason to get involved in Special Pops and Special Olympics pickleball. If you are interested in learning more, you can contact Elison directly at elisonmcallaster@gmail.com. If you are interested, but can’t devote the time to the clinics, you can still help. Please donate your used paddles. Just take them to the pro shop at Franklin Creek and be sure to say they are for use by Special Pops and Special Olympics. The players and your garage will appreciate your generosity.