Good afternoon everyone,

I hope you're doing well and getting to spend some time on our pickleball courts with family and friends.

I have a couple of short news items I want to share with you regarding indoor courts and concrete walkways. But before I do, being new in this role, I need to take a moment to say how thankful I am to those of you who were so instrumental in helping me on my journey to becoming a recently appointed USA Pickleball Ambassador for Catawba County. I don't take this appointment lightly. Please know that I will do my best to fill the very big shoes of my predecessor, Benjamin Bishop. Speaking of which, as many of you know, Benjamin did amazing work on our behalf. If you aren't aware, allow me to give you a Reader's Digest version, a summary if you will, of his time as our Ambassador.

Benjamin's most visible accomplishment is this: It was a direct result of his working with city and park & rec officials that we now have 23 dedicated outdoor courts instead of just four! You think the courts are crowded now? Can you imagine having only four courts with over 1,000 pickleballers?

Aside from the above, and unbeknownst to probably most of you, he spent countless hours driving around town taking pictures of courts with drainage problems, nets that weren't set up correctly, mud holes and puddles that needed to be addressed, fixing wind screens that came loose, and so much more. He literally spent hours and hours of his personal time criss crossing town in attempts to get signatures from as many of you as possible so he could present those signatures to city and park & rec officials to justify our need for more courts. It was these kinds of tasks, and many, many other thankless ones, that he completed because, well, it's because that's who he is. He was dedicated...to each of you! And if you know him personally, you know that to be true. So, Benjamin Bishop, from all of us in the Foothills Pickleball Association...your pickleball community...we offer you a well-deserved and long overdue "THANK YOU" for all you did for us!

Okay, time for a little news. And I know it's not much, but it is something positive and I'm glad to be able to report it to you. I have been in contact with some local residents that are looking to develop a premiere indoor pickleball facility in Hickory. The dream is for it to be large enough to house a minimum of six "outdoor courts" indoors (and if space allows, and that is their desire, the number of courts would be in the double digits). For those who might be asking, "What does that mean?", it means that the courts themselves would be made of outdoor court surface material but would be housed indoors under weather controlled conditions. This is by far the very best of both worlds!

Just to emphasize, this is early in the discussion stage. Nothing more, nothing less. But, according to them, it is going to happen.

For me, just the thought of what might be in our future has my pickleball paddle jumping out of the bag! I'm like many of you: I want to hear ANY news about "what might be" in our pickleball future. Having said that, I'll keep you posted about any new developments as they become available.

The second bit of news may not be as exciting, but the news itself isn't just a possibility - it's more of a concrete fact. That's it. Really. That's it. There was a crew at Westmont that was doing an assessment of where would be the best place to install concrete walkways down to the courts, making them wheel chair accessible. Can you imagine, no more walking through mud getting into the courts after a rain? They didn't share when the job would be completed but it is on their list of projects to be done.

Well, that's where we stand as of today.

I hope everyone has a fantastic week!