Good evening to you all.This email brings you up to speed on a few club-related events but unfortunately we have to start with a much more difficult announcement.
Today is a sad day within the Bend Pickleball Club. We have lost one of our own, and this is always a very difficult time for our community. Craig McGaurragh passed away today at 1 PM in the comfort of his and his beloved wife Izzy’s home in Redmond after a prolonged and brave battle with cancer. All of us who knew Craig knew him as a kind, funny, gentlemanly guy and a true competitor on the courts. We will miss him greatly and our prayers go to Izzy now and always. Services have not yet been announced. We will try to keep you informed.
It’s hard to go from that to other news, but we need communicate a few details.
New courts update: One last layer of tan color is needed before the white lines can be painted and post and nets can be installed. Everything is weather dependent. The weather forecast looks better for this weekend. We hope to have the courts ready by the end of the month as per contractor schedule.
Organized Play will start when the new courts are done. All challenge court play continues until then. The weekly play schedule until Senior Games is also on SignUpGenius (aka “the SUG”).
Ratings: Sign ups for 2.5 and 3.0 players have been activated on the SUG. As soon as we have completed those two skill levels we will open sign ups for the 3.5, again on the SUG. We advise players to get familiar with the skill level definitions on the BPC website before signing up. A big THANK YOU to Gail and Doug and their 20 volunteer raters.
Shed: Les Scott, Director of Facilities, will soon need 6-8 volunteers to help move stuff from the temporary storage trailer at the courts to our new shed. We will communicate about that when the timing is set; we do know we need to evacuate the existing trailer by the end of the month so the move can’t be any later. Please contact him directly at rickieschance@aol.com to volunteer. Thanks.
Tournament Stuff: The OSG entry deadline is June 9. Please get your partners lined up and registrations completed! Our August tournament, the Big Country RV Open, is CLOSED to new registrations! You can still finish an incomplete registration although time and space is running out! We still need many volunteers for these tournaments so consider our request when we reach out. It takes a community to run a pickleball club of this size.
Clinics: We may have a new clinic format to share with you soon. Watch for a separate email about this.
Thanks, and, if you can, remember Craig McGarraugh and Izzy in your prayers.
A.J.
