For the third year in a row, 64 Orange County women returned to the pickleball courts at the Tennis and Pickleball Club at Newport Beach to raise much needed funds for KidWorks’ College Success Initiative™. A record breaking $64,000 was raised at the tournament.
The initiative prepares first generation college students for higher education beyond high school and includes our College Apps Academy, Campus Crash event, plus engagement with our college counselor, care packages for our college students and more.
Events such as the “Pickleball for a Purpose” tournament have helped ensure that for the past eight years, 100 percent of KidWorks high school students have graduated on time and 100 percent have gone onto higher education.
“We are so grateful to the KidWorks’ Women’s Committee and the Women’s Pickleball Tournament Committee for the tremendous hard work they put into assuring that our 2022 event sold out once again and provided such fun and comradery as they ‘played for a purpose,’” says Lisa Gels, our Associate Director of Development.
Tournament gold-level division winners are Darcy Bouzeos, Cheri Gaylord, Jeri McKenna and Shelly Read.
After the pickleball tournament, players enjoyed a luncheon buffet and participated in raffle and silent auction.
They also heard from longtime KidWorks volunteer Camille Strader and Estrella Moreno, a 10th grade high school sophomore and KidWorks student who also volunteers at our Dan Donahue Center.
Camille and Estrella have become fast friends over the years, an example of the shared blessings that happen so often between our students, staff, volunteers and supporters.
In her remarks at the tournament Camille said, “I have the privilege once a week of seeing how your support plays out in the lives of the amazing kids at KidWorks.”
Camille added, “The past two years have been incredibly difficult. Covid greatly impacted the KidWorks community. We went from having fun in person afternoons to crazy Zoom meetings with spotty internet connections! I was very proud of all the ways KidWorks was able to quickly pivot to help our families.”
In her comments, Estrella said, “I’ve been part of KidWorks since preschool. I’ve met incredible people like Ms. Camille, who I met in fifth grade. During the pandemic we kept in touch by sending letters to each other and sharing our struggles, emotions and dreams for the future. It has been a blessing to me and I have saved each letter.”
Estrella added, “I’ve been part of the KidWorks’ Youth Leadership Team for four years. We choose projects that help our community and plan events for KidWorks Youth. Our recent project was at the Orange County Rescue Mission where we worked in the kitchen and prepared breakfast for the families.”
Lisa says, “The pickleball tournament brings together caring individuals to ‘fund raise and friend raise.’ The Women’s Committee plans to do even more on behalf of our students and are forming a leadership committee to help chart the way.”
For instance, this month the Women’s Committee assembled care packages for every KidWorks student attending a college or university.
The package includes personal care items, snacks, hand-written notes from staff and volunteers, plus other essentials.
Kyle Team, a member of the KidWorks’ board of directors, is chair of the Women’s Committee.
Lisa thanked event chair Kathy Ursini “an amazing leader with great ideas and a ‘get-it-done’ approach.”
The Pickleball committee members were:
Kristi Bailey
Kim Carpenter
Wendy Hafer Cox
Marisol Dunk
Betsy Flint
Heather Gaughan
Lori Junkins
C.C. Knowles
Leslie Montgomery
Corinne Morgenstern
Sharon Rinker
Sharon Roy
Jill Schriber
Ellen Small
Kyle Team
A full list of 2022 pickleball tournament sponsors are at this link:
We also toast Tom Schriber, Chairman Emeritus at Donahue Schriber and Doug Ammerman, for pouring wine for players and guests who relaxed after the tournament.
We have big plans for the spring 2023 pickleball tournament and will announce details once they are finalized. We expect player spots to sell out quickly for our fourth tournament, so please plan on reserving early so you can enjoy all the fun.
By Glenn Leibowitz, volunteer writer