Our time on the executive board of the GranIt all started in 2016, when my husband and I returned home from our first few winter months in Phoenix, Arizona, with our new addiction to pickleball.

We returned to Grande Prairie and started our search for other people to play pickleball with.

Eventually, we found two couples (John and Gwen Atkinson, Sandy and Lawrence Richer) playing at the college gym, once a week and they were very excited to have us join their small group (even though the courts were too small and the dividing curtain interfered with our backswing).

The following spring, when we returned from down south, we started playing on the outdoor tennis courts in Muskoseepi Park, using masking tape to mark the lines of the pickleball court and lowering the tennis nets. This was even more fun than playing at the college, but chasing the balls was a pain. We started wearing clothing that had the deepest pockets, so that we could come play 10 or 12 balls before having to collect them up. A few more snowbirds wandered by and saw us playing and thus our group began to expand.

The next year, even more people began to play with us in the park. Now we had 14-25 people competing with tennis players to use the 3 available tennis courts. We needed a place to play. We began our search by approaching city council and they told us that we would need to be a non-profit club before they would consider our proposals. So we talked to some of our playing mates and they agreed to join with us to form a club.

We did numerous presentations to the City. They continually told us that pickleball sounded like fun, but really what was pickleball? The City then decided to provide the Dave Barr Arena as a potential place to play. They purchased 6 portable pickleball nets and painted pickleball lines on the floor. In no time those 6 courts were overwhelmed with players. We held many ‘learn to play pickleball’ clinics and even sponsored our first pickleball tournament. It was a huge success. We also had our first delegation head to the Alberta 55+ games to compete in pickleball.

Our Club numbers reached over a 100 members, so now we were on a mission to get courts dedicated for pickleball.

We continued to do presentations to the City but they still thought that this was just the latest fad; no money for us yet. After a number of years of repeatedly doing presentations and being repeatedly being rejected, we were just about ready to quit the quest.

All of a sudden the City decided to dangle a small sum of money and three unused tennis courts for us to work with. “Let’s take the money, do what we can, get this process started, and then see what happens,” was our attitude. So we took the money and started our career of begging every single contractor to cut their prices so that we could afford them. After countless hours of negotiations, we figured we could paint 10 permanent courts, 2 temporary courts and fence them in. NO more chasing balls. Yippee!

So the work began. The club members, about 75 of them now, all stepped up to clean and prep the old tennis courts for the fencers and painters. Wonderful people showed up on sunny days, windy days, and rainy days to get the work done.

Fast forward to July, 2020. We have beautifully painted and fenced courts, but no more money and COVID affecting all of the grants previously available to community groups. My husband and I had previously purchased the nets and posts so they could be installed. We figured that we would be paid back whenever the Club could afford it, but our Club members said “No Way!” They wanted to personally donate money to cover the costs of the nets and poles. And yes they did. They were amazing and generous. Our Swan City Rotary Club stepped up to give us a small donation, as well. We made it. We could now start playing on these courts.

The icing on our facility came when the United Way stepped up during the COVID isolation period to provide us with enough money to finish our basic plans. A seating area with picnic tables, some sturdy benches, wind screening, sun shades, and a new cemented entrance way was completed.

The quest was complete.

Now our club has almost reached the 300 member mark and community people are able to come out and enjoy this amazingly wonderful sport. We are so fortunate to have found this sport and all of the amazing people that come out to enjoy our beautiful pickleball facility in Grande Prairie.

A special thank you goes out to the original executive of our organization – Debbie Isley,Ed Teichroeb, Karen Nielsen, Brian Backus, Sandy Richer, Lawrence Richer, Doug and and Lindi Speager.