Concord Monitor – Healthy living meets community spirit: Friendly Kitchen puts on pickleball tournament

Jonesy Rainsville has played pickleball for over 15 years, way before it became the hot new sensation it is today.

The staff member at the Friendly Kitchen, which serves free meals to the hungry in Concord, had the idea to organize a tournament to raise funds for the organization. She never thought more than 100 people would sign up to play.

On Sunday morning, dozens of players of all ages wearing sports polos, visor hats, headbands, and flexible shorts poured in as the courts at Rolfe Park dried from the rain for the first of its kind event. Even with two matches on each tennis court at the park, up to eight matches happened simultaneously with varying degrees of intensity.

“Definitely building community,” Rainville said as she looked toward the courts. “The beautiful thing about pickleball is it brings together people from all walks of life and people of all ages. Like, Ryan could be out there, he’s just a kid, he could be out there playing with a 75-year-old man and having a ball.”

Ryan Achong, a Bishop Brady varsity tennis graduate who attends UNH for electrical engineering, has played pickleball with Rainsville for a few years now.

“I got to meet a lot of people. I mean, a lot of them are a lot older than me, maybe like 40, 50,” Achong said after helping mop up the courts. “It’s fun because I get to play with my dad as well. It’s not just older people playing; my doubles partner I played with yesterday, he was in high school.”

In many sports, large age differences can lead to equally large disparities in ability, but clean-shaven Achong and white-haired Rainsville were relative equals on the court.

The fact that young and old can master the sport is one of the driving factors in pickleball’s explosive growth. USA Pickleball statistics list that the country added 4,000 courts in 2024, totaling 68,458. Tens of millions have picked up a paddle at least once in the past three years, and the average age of players keeps dropping, according to The Sports & Fitness Industry Association and the Association of Pickleball Professionals.

The benefits of pickleball are similar to tennis, racketball, squash and badminton but with lower impact. The court is smaller, and the equipment is cheaper. The sport improves balance, coordination, strength and cardiovascular health.

For the participants and volunteers at Rolfe Park, the best part of pickleball was getting together for a good cause.

The Friendly Kitchen’s manager, Sara Curran, was surprised by the size of the event. The non-profit got sponsors and had a raffle at the event to raise funds to continue feeding those in need.

“We’re putting our name out there and we’re telling people about what we do, but we’re also getting together a group of people who love to play as poor and then educating them on what The Friendly Kitchen does. So it’s a really neat community event,” said Curran.