Good morning LPPC Picklers,

As I sit here this morning, I’m looking at a beautiful orange sun in the sky. We can certainly count our blessings out here in central Oregon compared to the valley right now. Usually we are the ones on fire during this season. With the poor air quality, please be careful if you decide to play outside.

I wanted to touch base on a few different things as it’s been a while:

First, our Frontier Days non-event went off pretty well. We kept it very low profile and got some good play in regardless of the limitations. We were also able to make enough money to pay back about a third of our member loans for the courts. A big thank you to everyone involved, especially Vera, for seeing this thing through after all of the adjustments necessary.

Second, we adjusted our hours of operation to accommodate the colder mornings around here. We are starting at 9am for our normal days of operation (Monday-Friday and Sunday). At this point the Round Robin Saturdays are the same. As always, if there is a captain willing to start earlier or play later, that’s great too. You’ll want to coordinate that with them.

Third, the board wanted to wish Suzanne C. and Jim C. (no relation) a speedy recovery from injuries recently sustained. We hope to see you on the courts as soon as you are able!

Fourth, Michelle S. is selling her Lobster pickleball machine with remote control. They are heading to AZ and won’t need it down there. This is a great training tool that let’s you work on drills even when you aren’t playing. She is asking $700 for the unit. Please contact her directly if interested- 619-920-4220.

Lastly, I’ve been talking with Lee Whitwell, the pro at Widgi Creek, and we’ve been planning some clinics for our members down here at our courts. The clinics would be level-specific and run probably about 3 hours (2 hours of instruction and 1 hour of play). She’ll bring down another pro if needed, giving us 16 spots maximum per level. The cost will be somewhere around $80-$100 and may include something from Pickleball Planet. :) This could be a great way to get some high quality instruction and another perspective on the game. I’ll let you know more as soon as I know more.

Oh, one more last thing- I’ve been talking with Karen Miller, the executive director of LPRD, and she’s working on getting the indoor courts open for the fall (sometime in October). It may only be a couple days a week, but we are on the top of the list for getting access again (protocols will need to be adhered to, of course). More to come on that…

That’s it for now. Take care, be safe and please keep those who have been impacted by the wildfires in your thoughts. I know of 2 people already who have lost their homes and I’m sure many of us have family over in the valley.

Take care,

Jim Price

President, LPPC