Players packed courts in the Clark County Event Center for the inaugural Big Pickle tournament, a pickleball fundraiser supporting Friends of the Children Southwest Washington and its long-term youth mentoring program on Wednesday, May 13.
Held as a community-focused fundraiser, the pickleball tournament brought together 26 teams for a day of fun competition in the event hall, adorned with pickle balloons and upbeat tunes. The event served as much more than a fun run-up to being crowned the top team out of 26, but also to support a nonprofit that supports local youth through mentorship and experiences.
Organizers said the pickleball tournament offered a different style of fundraiser while helping raise critical support for the nonprofit.
“We wanted to have something that was fun and active and different from what people are doing all the time,” executive director Allison Pauletto said. “So to be a nonprofit putting on a fundraiser like this is a really fun way.”
Friends of the Children Southwest Washington Board Chair Michelle Goodwin said 90% of their funding comes from individual donations.
“So we’re always looking for ways to raise money to support this organization,” Pauletto added.
The organization hopes the first-year event will continue to grow in the future. Pauletto and Goodwin said they are already planning for next year.
“It’s really fun to have people from our community coming together, having fun together, and building community with all focus on supporting an organization doing critical work in our community,” Pauletto said. “So it’s inspiring, it’s fun, and then it will just continue to build in the future.”
The nonprofit pairs youth with paid professional mentors who work consistently with children throughout their school years.
“We’re a mentoring organization that supports kiddos from kindergarten through high school graduation in Southwest Washington,” Pauletto said. “We actually hire paid professional mentors. It’s their full-time job to work with our kiddos. So it’s taking mentoring out of the volunteer space and into the professional space.”
According to Pauletto, each mentor spends four hours every week with each of the eight children they support. Mentoring is both during and after school hours, she added.
“A lot of it is just getting to be a kiddo,” Pauletto said of the program. “But it’s working on developing their social and emotional skills.”
The program also introduces children to places and experiences throughout the area that many have never had the opportunity to explore. During spring break, the mentors and children in the program went out to hike around Battle Ground Lake State Park, with Pauletto highlighted.
“For I think all the kids, none of them had ever been there,” she added.
Pauletto also added that mentors brought kids to Frenchman’s Bar to play volleyball and participate in other activities to help youth feel more connected to their community.
“It’s about getting to know the world beyond where you are living,” she said.
To learn more about Friends of the Children Southwest Washington, visit friendsswwa.org.
