8/31/2021 Good afternoon! For those of you who don't know me, I'm Benjamin Bishop, the crazy guy running around a couple months ago asking you to sign a paper in order to try and get more outdoor pickleball courts in Hickory! The voices from our pickleball community have been heard and by the middle of October we should have 13 newly resurfaced outdoor pickleball courts available: 4 at Optimist, 3 at Taft Broome (Ridgeview Recreation Center), and 6 at Westmont (1316 Main Ave Dr NW, Hickory). I've been working with Hani Nassar (President of the Greater Hickory Tennis Association), Mark Seaman (Director of Parks, Recreation, and Sports Tourism for Hickory), and the City of Hickory to try and bring more outdoor courts to our pickleball community. They have worked tirelessly trying to find ways, and money, to get us as many outdoor courts as possible and in a timely manner. Without their drive, hard work, and commitment to finding ways to add outdoor pickleball courts to our community, we would still only have the four courts at Optimist. So if you have a chance to personally (card and/or email would be fantastic as well) thank them, please do so!!! As my work with those mentioned above got more involved, and I learned there was a "Greater Hickory Tennis Association," I felt our pickleball family needed an organization as well. So a couple weeks ago I sent out a poll asking about several names and when the votes were tallied most people preferred, "FOOTHILLS PICKLEBALL ASSOCIATION." So now when we approach the city with our pickleball wants, we will sound 'official.' TeamReach is an awesome app to communicate with the pickleball family but I'm always afraid I'll miss reaching someone or someone won't check it often. So I created this email group in hopes of sending out any important information as it pertains to the Foothills Pickleball Association. I blind copied everyone (currently 48 people) so nobody should be able to see your email address (I know some people want theirs kept private). If I didn't bcc this email correctly and you're seeing someone else's email addresses, please let me know and I'll fix the problem...I truly apologize! If you do not want to receive any emails in the future as they pertain to the FPA or pickleball in our area please just reply "Take Me Off" and I'll gladly remove you from the group. Obviously there are more than 48 members of the Hickory pickleball family so please talk to those you normally play with and if they didn't receive this email, and would like to receive future emails, have them shoot me an email, letting me know to add them to the FPA group. I simply pulled the emails off the sheet you signed a couple months ago (I apologize, there were a couple I couldn't read so I know they aren't in this group). As for an update on the courts: Westmont: there will be 6 pickleball courts at Westmont - originally the city had decided to have one tennis court and two pickleball courts there but with a little nudging by Hani Nassar and some extra work by Mark Seaman, it was decided to make that facility all pickleball with 6 courts; the courts are resurfaced and painted, all sleeves for the poles have been put in the ground, and I believe two sets of post have been put up; there were nets on two of the courts but when I checked them I found they were not regulation size nets therefore they were taken down (in order to be returned to the company); 4 sets of posts for those courts were backordered until October (they only thought they needed two sets when they were ordered), but by luck this weekend I was able to find a place that had them in stock, I notified the contractor, and he said that he ordered them on Saturday; I will be ordering the regulation nets today; the projected completion date to have all six courts at Westmont playable is September 15th. Taft Broome: there are three courts there with two of them currently having nets; when I checked the new nets at Westmont and realized they weren't regulation, I also found out the middle net at Westmont was the same brand of net; that middle net will be replaced when the nets for Westmont come in Optimist: the drainage problem at Optimist is scheduled to be fixed near the end of September (if weather permits the contractor to complete his other projects on time) with the repairs to the courts and resurfacing taking place after that; hopefully they will be finished and ready for play by the third week in October A tremendous THANK YOU to each of you who have contributed to the Westmont Pickleball Court Transformation GoFundMe ( https://gofund.me/4477ed89 ) ! We just hit $3000!!!!! Your unselfishness really demonstrates what our pickleball family is all about...doing whatever it takes to help our pickleball community and demonstrate to the City of Hickory that we want to work with them in the future to grow our sport any way we can! I know the City of Hickory will be very appreciative of your efforts! Since the Westmont courts will be (hopefully) finished within the next two weeks, we will need to end that fundraising project very soon - if you're willing to contribute and haven't, please do so by this week! Kudos to each of you who donated!!! I apologize for the lengthy email but I wanted to update everyone with all of the above information and TeamReach will only allow 800 characters in one post so I thought this might be a better method. Again, if you want me to remove you from this email group please let me know. Please check with all of the people you normally play with to see if they got this email and if they want to be added to this email group. I can't wait to get back out on the courts with each of you soon! My nose should be healed up enough (5+ hour surgery to remove basal cell carcinoma skin cancer) for me to start playing again in a couple weeks! I hope each of you have a fantastic week!!! btw: I apologize for all the grammatical errors in this email - I'm a Math teacher, not an English teacher B. Benjamin Bishop Hickory, NC