2019 Pickleball Club Holiday Dinner Opening Remarks
Welcome to the first ever Pickleball Club Holiday Dinner. I want to thank you all for being here tonight! We have 117 registered guests. What a fantastic turnout!!!
Before I say a few words, I want to recognize and thank the organizers of this event – Our Social Committee Chairs: Trish O’Neill and Robyn Siebenthall with lots of help from David Cook, Sheryl Ruth, Ginny Spencer and Anahid Gregg.
What a great year we have had! I would like to mention some highlights:
- We had two well attended and fun tournaments
- Anahid Gregg arranged for us to have Pickleball Club shirts
- We had a fun “exchange tournament” with the Bocce Club.
- The courts were improved when they were resurfaced and we began using the yellow tape
- Trish O’Neill organized the first “Pickle Up” program, a “jump start learning program” which yielded over 50 new members.
- Mike Walias continues to dedicate Wednesday and Friday afternoons to introduce Pickleball to interested Villagers.
- David Cook developed a new Pickleball Club web site which has greatly improved our communications
- We have almost doubled the size of our Club to almost 200 members.
- The work has begun to obtain a planning permit from the City of San Jose to build 4 dedicated Pickleball courts.
- The Villages Club Board has named a Pickleball Ad Hoc committee, chaired by Larry Martinson, whose role it is to communicate accurate information about Pickleball and the plans for Pickleball courts to our community. Hopefully this will lead to a successful vote.
- And lastly, we have raised over $450,000 to build the courts. $75,000 is from the Evergreen Villages Foundation. EVF has supported us from the very beginning and even hosted a “Just for Fun” golf tournament to help us raise more money. To show our appreciation to EVF, lets all try to attend their first annual GALA event to be held right here in the Clubhouse on March 11th!
Finally I want to remind everyone to mark your calendars to at attend our annual meeting on Sunday, April 7th in the Foothill Center. We will be electing new officers and appointing new committee chairs.
Now please enjoy yourselves tonight and be sure to stop by the table by the door, where Anahid Gregg is taking orders for Pickleball Club hats, engraved wine glasses and you can pick up your Pickleball Club fan as our gift to you.
Have a great time.
Garry Gray
President