09/12/2026
💜🏓 PICKLE 4 PURPLE — LET’S FILL THE COURTS! 💜 SEPT 18, 19, and 20!
We’re playing for more than just the win. 🏆
Join us for our Pickle 4 Purple Tournament, benefiting Alzheimer’s awareness and support. Every team that signs up is helping us make a difference for the millions of families affected by this devastating disease. 💜
Grab your partner. Bring your friends. Come play, compete, laugh, and support an incredible cause!
🏓 Play pickleball.
💜 Support Alzheimer’s.
🎉 Have a great time.
🏆 Maybe take home the win!
We want to see these courts FULL — so don’t wait to sign up!
👉 Get your team registered today and help us Pickle 4 Purple! 💜
Pickle 4 Purple tournament helps the Alzheimer’s Association of Ohio
TOLEDO – Time for a little amateur sports trivia.
What is officially the fastest-growing sport in the United States, with roughly 20-24 million active regular players and over 68,000 tracked courts nationwide? The answer is pickleball.
For those unfamiliar with pickleball, it can be played indoors or outdoors, and competitors use a racket/paddle to hit a hollow perforated ball over a 34-inch-high net. The sport, which resembles tennis and ping pong, was invented in 1965.
Mary Beth DeMatteo, 74, and her husband, Bob, 71, who lived in Waterville for 25 years and now reside in Chandler, Ariz., and Holland, Ohio, are certainly hooked. They play pickleball 3-5 times a week.
“It really is that one game where you hear so much laughing, even when you make a bad shot,” Bob said. “It has been an incredible integration of community. There is a camaraderie that goes along with pickleball. We were invited to go out to the court that was built in Holland. Mike Younker brought the game back from Florida and built the first two courts in Holland.
Read more: https://toledofreepress.com/pickle-4-purple-tournament-helps-alzheimers-association-of-ohio/
(courtesy image)
By: Mark Griffin
