A NIGHT OUT WITH THE RIVER BANDITS!

An afternoon of baseball, food, and fun with pickleball friends at Modern Woodmen Park!  Burgers, brats, and hot dogs were enjoyed by all in a much appreciated air-conditioned suite on a very hot day!  An added bonus was the River Bandits beating the Lansing Lugnuts 3-1.  A beautiful stadium overlooking the mighty Mississippi River and the Centennial Bridge.  Thank you all for attending!

Annual Club Picnic at The Tangled Wood!

Join us for the Annual Picnic to discover all the exciting things the Quad Cities Pickleball Club is doing for the community and enjoy a fun tailgating party!

Registration closes on September 15th, so be sure to sign up today to secure your spot. Simply scan the QR code or click on this link to register: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/8050D4FADAB2CABFC1-50717779-game

If you need to join or renew your membership for just $15/year, you can do so at https://quadcitiespickleball.com/membership or at the event. We look forward to seeing you there!  

Pickleball Clinic a Success!

Just wrapped up an incredible three-day intermediate pickleball clinic at Middle School! Despite the scorching heat, the energy and enthusiasm of the participants kept the atmosphere lively and fun. Each day was packed with drills, strategy sessions, and plenty of on-court action. Steve Ebner focused on refining techniques and improving game tactics, all while staying hydrated and keeping cool with plenty of breaks. The camaraderie among players was fantastic, and it was inspiring to see so many individuals push their limits and enjoy the game in such challenging weather. A huge thanks to our coaches-- Steve Ebner, Connie Coene, Carol Cincola, Larry White, and Dave Rumler -- for their expert guidance and encouragement throughout the clinic.

End of Season Scramble a Success!

We had our End of Season Beginners RR Scramble at Kiwanis Park. There were 24 who played. We had 2 groups and had 1st, 2nd & 3rd winners in each group. Had a few rain drops early but they passed. All had a good time!

QCPC Gives Back to Local Community Organizations!

Thanks to Yen Dao, Tournament Director; Susie Archer and Laurie Ochs, Co-Directors; the QC Pickleball Club; the many sponsors and all the QCPB Club's great volunteers in making the 2023 QC Classic Pickleball Tournament a success!  The club’s board voted to donate $5000 of the net proceeds from the tournament to charity to show our commitment of giving back to the QC Community.  Five organizations were selected to receive a donation of $1000. The photos show co-directors and board members presenting the checks to each organization

Sue Erickson, Susie Archer, Laura Kopp, CASI (Center for Active Seniors, Inc.) and Laurie Ochs

Gina DeWulf and the staff at Big Brothers Big Sisters 

Gina DeWulf, Leslie Corlett of River Bend Food Bank and Sandy Paredes (check will purchase 5,000 meals)

Susie Archer, Laurie Ochs, Madelyn Beverlin and Megan Brown-Saldana  of Humility of Mary Shelter

Laurie Ochs and Susie Archer with Bob Juarez and Kevin McKee of QCA Adaptive Sports Association

SIGN-UP FOR DECEMBER HOLIDAY PARTY!!

CALL BY DECEMBER 5TH TO RESERVE YOUR SPOT!

Dinner to include carved Roast Beef and Chicken Cordon Bleu. Vegetarian option available upon request at time of RSVP.

You may pay a member or VENMO @Diane-Noll-04 (last 4 digits of phone are 2094).

Sign up by December 5th by contacting:

Sue Freburg at (563) 650-7988, Diane Noll (563) 210-2094, Mary Lincoln (563) 357-6692, Lisa Betsworth (309) 236-2499, Deb Krohn (309) 292-2027, Deb Guilfoyle (563) 359-1071, Marcie Fosdick (316) 990-2282, Sue Erickson (309) 236-3062 or Connie Coene (309) 236-6292.

A Note from the QCPC President

QUAD CITIES PICKLEBALL CLUB ANNUAL PICNIC AND MEETING

SUNDAY, SEPT. 24 4:00pm

From Club President, Steve Morrison:  here are some comments and highlights from the past year.


Welcome everyone, and thanks for coming.
We extend a big thank you to Julie Miller and the Social Committee for once again putting on an extraordinary event.
I hope everyone realizes that just by attending this picnic you have received full value for your $15 annual membership!

·      Tenth Anniversary

This is the tenth anniversary of the forming of the Pickleball Club.  We have come a long way since 2013 and are grateful for all the work done by all the people who paved the way for what the Club has become today.  There were 119 members at the end of 2013 and over 650 members today.  There are still 29 people on our membership roster from that first year.

In 2013 the membership fees were set at $15.00 per year… and have not changed since then!

·      Tournament

On behalf of the Board of Directors and everyone in the Club, I thank Yen Dao, Laurie Ochs, Susie Archer, the rest of the Tournament Committee, and all the volunteers for everything you did to ensure the success of this year’s Quad City Classic.  In addition to providing an excellent experience for all the participants, the tournament provides funds to the Pickleball Club that we use to improve the playing conditions throughout our area, as well as to fund a variety of social events throughout the year.

Club members attending the picnic this year received a small token of this financial benefit in the form of two free pickleballs.

The 2023 tournament was again a great success, with 351 participants.

The Past Year

Let’s quickly run through some of the highlights of the past year and recognize the people who made them happen:

1.                 Memberships
As usual, we thank Annie Edwards for all her work behind the scenes to keep our membership roster up to date and send countless communications out to our members.
We currently have about 650 members.  This is about 100 more than this time last year, and the most members we have ever had.

 

2.                 Court Amenities
Last year we spent more than $6000 on anything from windscreens to nets to squeegees and ball holders, for ten different locations.

We increased our budget to $10,000 this year, but only received requests for about $4500 of improvements.

We plan to run the same program again next year.

Thanks to all the Court Ambassadors who worked with Gina DeWulf on this project.

3.                 Pickleballs:

We bought 2000 pickleballs at discounted prices and resold them at cost, saving our members about $2000 compared to retail rates.  In fact, if you bought as few as nine balls from the Club you already paid for your annual membership.
We’ll continue buying them as long as you keep breaking them.

 

4.                 Training:

Sharon Walters, Cathy Gaines, Judy Peterson, and Diane Noll, along with their many helpers, taught about 400 new pickleball players how to get started with the game, through the Pickleball 101 classes, and the new “Newby Tuesday” and Pickleball 102 followup activities.

We owe our Club’s substantial growth this year to the fine work (and salesmanship) that these instructors have provided to so many new players.

Steve Ebner and his group of volunteer instructors ran five  intermediate clinics this year, helping 88 people improve their game through their 3-day, 2-hour clinics.

Frank Cincola and his Youth Committee put on 11 clinics and camps throughout our area, teaching pickleball to more than 270 young players.  This is almost double the number of kids that went through these programs last year!.
 

5.                 Social Events

Julie Miller’s Social Committee organized numerous fun events for us in the past year, including a beautiful Christmas party, a night out with the River Bandits, an evening with Backwater Gamblers, several Dinks and Drinks sessions, free donut and pizza distributions to our various locations, and, of course, this picnic.

6.                 Media:

Our website, new last year, continues to see significant traffic.  We’ve had over 1000 visits in the past month alone.

Please continue to use it and pass on any suggestions you have to make it work better for you.


Thanks to Kate Parr for keeping the information current.

 

7.                 News about Playing Locations

a.     Six new courts in Muscatine were finished

b.     DeWitt added six new courts

c.      We lost the Life Fitness Center in Bettendorf

d.     Mel McKay courts will be completely redone this fall

Bragging rights about courts in our area:

Recently, there have been some statistics published that show the number of courts per capita throughout the country.   There have been several versions with differing statistics, but when we take into account the population in our Club’s geography and the number of dedicated outdoor courts in that area (73!), there is no doubt that our region ranks in the top half-dozen or so communities in the nation for the number of outdoor courts per capita!

8.                 Thanks to all Board members and Committees

Everyone on the Board and on the various committees puts in a lot of time and effort to provide the best possible pickleball and social experiences for our Club members.  We are always looking for ways to improve, so if you have any ideas, whether you are on a committee or not, please pass them on to any Committee or any Board member.

9.                 Thanks to our outgoing Board members:

a.     Caroline Hingst

b.     Christine Rodrigues

c.      Terry Wangler

10.            Your 2023-24 Board

Incumbents:        Steve Morrison, President; one more two-year term
                              Gina DeWulf, Vice President; one more year
                              Calvin Moss, Secretary; one more two-year term
                              Frank Ludgate, Treasurer; one more year
                              Brad Dye, At-Large, second year
                              Sue Erickson, At-Large, second year

New Nominees:  Dennis Boehme, At-Large, first year
                               Pam Hansen, At-Large, first year
                               Sandy Paredes, At-Large, first year

Please contact any of these Board members with suggestions for making our Club even better.

11.            Thanks again to Julie Miller and the Social Committee for organizing the annual picnic and for all the other activities during the year.

End of Season Beginner Scramble-Kiwanis Courts

1st place -  Lance Adkins, 2nd place - Curt Conner, 3rd place - Lucia Dryanski

Congrats to all.  Keep playing and have fun!

The QCPC had an End of Season Scramble for our Beginners at Kiwanis. The players had participated in beginner lessons and recreational play on Mondays at Kiwanis courts throughout the summer, which culminated in a fun scramble. Special thanks to Cathy & Judy for organizing, and to the volunteers who helped make each session a success!