This episode talks about Pickle Palooza, a lively event designed to introduce pickleball to the Lansing area and bring people together through sport. The event has grown into a three-day celebration with activities and tournaments that welcome participants of all ages and skill levels. Overall, it highlights how sports can build community, support healthy lifestyles, and create meaningful connections among neighbors.

Mentioned This Episode

Website: Picklepalooza

Facebook: Picklepalooza at Delta Mills

Website: Lansing Sports - Picklepalooza

Welcome to Community Convos, a podcast and radio program from LCC Connect with conversations about what's happening in Lansing and around mid Michigan.

Hey, this is Daedalian and welcome back to the convo once again. And with me in the studio is a couple folks I'm going to introduce.

Our host for the day is Megan Simmons. Megan, welcome to the convo.

Thank you.

Now, this is your first time joining us, and the reason you are joining us is cause you expressed some interest in being a part of what we do here at LCC Connect, right?

Yeah, absolutely. I was so excited to hear from you.

And then you got to talking about Pickapalooza and I said, okay, I don't know, Jessie, so why don't you invite Jessie in and you interview Jessie about Pickle Palooza? That's the way this kind of all came down to it.

Did it? Did. And I absolutely love it.

I was so excited to, number one, to have you reach out to me about this because I'm born and raised from Lansing and there are so many amazing things that are happening in mid Michigan and not a lot of people know what is behind it. And so talking to you about that, it's just I feel really honored to be here today and I'm really excited to kick it off with Jessie.

All right, Jessie, I wasn't even going to attempt your last name.

It's Jessie Stipcak.

There you go. Stipcak. It's pretty simple when you say it, but you look at it and you're like, should I say this?

I've been tortured over the years, I assure you.

All right, so tell us a little bit about what's happening here. Pickle Palooza, right?

Yeah.

So, Jessie, I actually wanted to start off because there might be people in the community that recognize your name, but it could be from so many different areas. So talk to us a little bit about when you started work here in Lansing and what has brought you to Pickle Palooza.

Can you just give us a little intro there?

Thank you, Megan. Yeah, so I came to Michigan State to study business and I started as a waitress at Reno's the 30 years ago, actually. So. And that was at Reno's East.

Absolutely. Loved it.

Changed my major to focus more on hospitality business, then ended up buying Reno's East a couple years later, and then after that when I bought Reno's west and then Reno's North. So been in the bar business for 30 years now. And it goes by and just snap a finger.

So that's awesome. And now you have shifted into the whole pickleball community, which is exploded d'. Alion. Have you played pickleball?

I have not had a chance yet. I really would like to, and it's a bummer that I haven't. I just haven't been able to figure out a time to go do it or anything.

So maybe this might be my opportunity.

This should be your opportunity.

Oh, we're gonna get you out there.

I think you're stuck in here, and everyone's doing it, from little kids all the way up to retired seniors that are kicking my butt on the pickleball courts. And so it's been this influence, and so you started doing these big community events. So why don't you talk to us about that?

You're going into year three, correct?

Absolutely.

Okay, talk to us a little about pickle palooza.

Well, let me kind of dial back just a sec to, you know, why I got into pickleball. And then it kind of evolved into this, like, tournament.

So.

So, you know, during COVID was obviously a pretty stressful and devastating time for a lot of people. You know, we were there with our business closed for quite some time.

And, you know, I really, you know, started thinking about, you know, what I wanted to do moving forward as we were kind of getting out of this, you know, Covid area. And I really wanted to, you know, a keep myself healthy and, you know, wanted to be around for my kids for a long time.

I have three kids, my husband and I, Bob. So I started learning pickleball, and I'm like, this is the most positive, incredible sport. I'm out there playing with kiddos.

I'm playing with 70, 80 year olds. It's a lot of fun.

I had always been an athlete in high school, but over the years, with just working and raising the kids and not having a lot of time for myself, I realized I really needed to focus on something a little more healthier, and it just really started exploding. I actually bought this house that you've been at, Megan, and we. It was a large basketball indoor gym, and we converted it to pickleball courts.

And we started inviting all of our friends from the area, Some of my Reno's friends, some of my networking friends, and just pretty much everybody that came in absolutely loved it and were just having a blast.

So I started thinking about a business model for it as well, on how we could maybe bring this to reno's, keep people active, more of an active sports bar, more of an entertainment area. So I just really started diving into the pickleball community and finding out everything I could.

And so at that point I got invited to be on the DAPA board, which is Delta Mills Pickleball Park, a community park. They have a voluntary board that raises money for different programming and just things around the park that we may need to raise money for.

And so I started with that organization and at the very first meeting I was like, we need to do a huge party, Pickle Palooza. And so everyone got like super excited about it.

And you know, so Pickle Palooza started as a way to, you know, teach the community what pickleball was all about. Get them out there exercising at the park. You know, we would loan out paddles, balls, we had volunteer coaches.

And so we wanted to put on a big party. And so, you know, we did that. Let's see here. We're going into our third year. We have businesses that sponsor the event and food truck bounce houses.

So that's a long answer to a short question.

Was the very first year as substantial as what you've got it now or was it more just kind of a basic, hey, let's all get together and do this?

You know what, that's a great question. We started as a one day event and you know, we were overwhelmed with the amount of people that came out to learn the sport.

And so, you know, the second year we grew it and this year we've turned it into a three day event where we're going to have a tournament over the three days and the last day is our big event where we have professional players coming to compete so everybody can watch how the pro level is played.

And then those pros are going to stick around after and play with, you know, our audience so that people can kind of learn and be able to compete against them. And it's just, yeah, it turned into an incredible free event at Delta Mills Park. And as Megan knows, Megan is in charge of the business showcase.

So we'll have lots of business owners there out to support and show the community what they do.

Absolutely. No, I'm excited for it this year and growing into three days. Can you talk to us a little bit about that?

Should the community come out all three days or what's your vision? Why the expansion of three days and where can people really connect? Would that be all three days, would you say? Or just on that Sunday?

Okay, great question. So the Friday and Saturday tournament. So Friday we're doing a senior tournament which is going to be awesome.

It's 50 and 60 plus players, so people will sign up that already have Been playing pickleball for, you know, the Friday and Saturday event. So that'll be a little more of the, you know, fun.

But people who have kind of been in pickleball for a little bit to play Sunday will be an event that is just very, very open for the community to come out. People who don't even know what pickleball is, we'd love for them to come out.

We're going to have all kinds of little games, instructions, showcases, giveaways. So a real fun thing that we did last year with Megan, with Acme, is she got up into a giant bucket truck and dropped 500 balls down to the public.

And everyone was running around grabbing all these balls. It was absolutely hilarious. And then they could turn in, like, certain mark balls for prizes and stuff like that. But it was just super, super fun.

And then Megan was also out there. They did a really fun, like, roof building thing on site with Acme, which was a lot of. And people were doing little pickleball relay races.

And, you know, it was just really like a big fun day at the park. And we really have some beautiful parks here in Lansing. So it's just been great to get, like, families, kids, grandparents, all out for that event.

Yeah. And if you've never played pickleball and someone comes out to Sunday, will they have an opportunity to actually play pickleball or just watch?

Yeah, we will have volunteers there at certain times. 12 To 4 is the best time to come out. And after the program, tournament and the play with the pros, we are going to have a youth tournament.

And that's totally available for people who haven't even played before. It's going to be just a lot of fun. So we'll have a youth tournament.

We're also going to be doing a generational tournament, so where grandparent plays with their grandkid or parents and their kids. So that'll be fun. So it'll be an adult and then a child, you know, 14 and under. So that'll be a real fun thing to do.

Do people typically show up with equipment or do you. Do you guys supply it? How does that work?

Great question. So for our events, we will definitely have equipment where people can borrow it. So just wear a good pair of shoes and make sure you're hydrated.

You want to be safe. But typically during the week when you go up to the park, you do need to bring your own equipment.

We do have certain nights of the week where, for instance, Wednesday is beginner night at the park, so we will have paddles where people can borrow them.

Saturday mornings we have a volun coach that will be there to at no charge teach people that are interested between 8 and 9am every Saturday this summer. So that's going to be a lot of fun and we will have equipment people can borrow.

Our main goal is to build demand, make sure as many people can experience what, you know, pickleball is all about and really enjoy our public parks.

Like it's just been an incredible thing that our local lake townships and cities are putting in these great pickleball courts for our community to stay active and connected.

That's actually a really good point because there is a lot going on just in those three days and not only that, but throughout the summer. For someone who's listening, that wants to get involved with all that, what is the best way for them to learn where all this stuff is?

I love that you asked that. Actually there is.

So for the Pickle Palooza event itself, we have partnered with Choose Lansing, formerly the Lansing Sports Authority, and they have created a really beautiful website for us with links to the schedule to signing up for the tournament. If you're looking it up, it's Choose Lansing and then it's Picklepalooza. So we'll have lots of information on that website.

We also have Facebook page picklepaloozaeltamills. And also just in general, if you're wanting to learn more about pickleball, we have a Delta Mills pickleball page.

But if people are interested in just like learning pickleball, we'd love for you to come out to Delta Mills Park. Check out our Facebook page. You can also log on to Delta Township and go to the parks and rec department. We have information about lessons.

We do have lessons on Wednesday evenings that are a little more intense. And you do sign up and pay for those lessons. If you really want to get into, you know, learning everything there is to know about it.

But if you just kind of want to like see what it's about, not have to pay any money, we do have the Saturday morning kind of free show you how to play. They're not intense lessons. It's ran by some very, very friendly and welcoming people. And they can also show you how our park system works.

Because when you go out to these like beautiful pickleball community parks in the morning and evening, there's usually a wait to play. Like there's a lot of demand for this sport.

And so what we've done is we've developed like paddle systems and you know, we have different courts where hey, this is more of the social courts, and this is more of the challenge courts. You put your paddles in, and we make sure it's. It's very, very inclusive and welcoming, and we want people to come out and meet new people. It's just.

That's what this sport is really about. It's not just the exercise. It's the community and the positive, like, culture around it.

And for years, you know, I would take my kids to the park, but we really, you know, we wouldn't go out and play sports at the parks, you know, So, I mean, you know, maybe softball back in my younger days, but this has just been such a rewarding to meet other members of the community. I see business owners, I see customers.

I see, you know, parents of, you know, my kids, friends, and, you know, it's just a place to gather, have a lot of fun, and also, you know, be healthy while you're doing it.

Absolutely. I can see your face completely lighting up whenever you talk about community and bringing people together, and it's really inspiring.

I wish everyone could see your face right now. You just light up. You're so excited. I could feel the energy.

Pretty sure she's said positive three times now.

I'm sure she did. I'm sure she did. You could just see she doesn't even want to sit in her seat anymore. I wish you guys all could see her.

There is so much energy, and I love that. Now I know that there are people in this community that have played pickleball before.

Yes.

Okay, so if they want to play, is there still time to sign up?

Oh, yeah, we definitely have time to sign up.

If people are interested in playing and they want to learn a little bit more or kind of level up, if they want to actually, like, join the tournament, there are plenty of opportunities in the next month. So this event is going on June 5th, 6th and 7th. Our registration will be open until about a week before the event. Okay.

So if people want to come out, there's different levels of the tournament that you can play in. And so if you're not sure what level, you can come out to our park. And especially on, like, Wednesday, beginner night at Delta Mills.

And, you know, you can play around with us. We can give you suggestions on what level you should sign up for.

We can help give you, like, tips and techniques to kind of get you kind of to the next level there.

Okay.

There's also lots of other parks and opportunity.

We partner with Court 1 athletics, and they also have lots of, like, clinics and days to Learn the sport where you don't have to necessarily become a member. You can kind of do a drop in and learn a little bit more about it. Yep. But again, our.

Our main goal, and again, our organization is dapa, which is the Delta area Pickleball associ. It's all volunteers, all there to help, like, show people the love of this game and why the sport can be amazing.

There's incredible stories of people that have either lost a ton of weight or, you know, wanted to make connections in the community, just moved to town, or, you know, finding a healthy outlet. And one really positive aspect of this is there's endless fundraising opportunities. So, you know, I am working on Picklepalooza.

I've also worked on probably five or six other large pickleball events. We've raised money. Just recently, you know, we did one for, you know, breast cancer research.

We did one with Deb Moreland for pickleball for alz, where we raised money for the Alzheimer's Association. We do a large annual event at court one, Pickle Paws, that I know Megan was involved in here, and that's for Happy Feet Pet Rescue.

We're working on a DeWitt Panther paddle tournament coming up in the next couple weeks, and that's to benefit the DeWitt tennis team.

So it really is becoming kind of like the new golf outing where you can put on these fun community events, raise money for a great cause, you know, have all the community involvement and a fun day out. And this sport is just incredible because pretty much anyone can access this space, you know, all ages. Wow.

Yeah. It's really taken off, huh?

Yeah.

I guess I'm gonna be the voice of the novice who's never done this before. And I'm kind of curious. So you say there's two things that I want to know. One is, what is standard equipment? What do you grab? Okay.

And then second question is, you said there's some physicality to it, but we're talking about like a wide angel. When you're talking 70s and 80s, that's kind of the point where you don't want to really be moving as much or you're not moving, moving as much.

I'm not gonna say that for every 70 and 80 year old.

Yep.

But how much exertion is there to this?

Oh, my gosh, this is amazing. I do think, like, one of the biggest hurdles of getting into the sport is people have reported injuries.

And so people are saying, okay, oh, I might get hurt. Okay, listen, like, you might not get hurt sitting on your couch. Watching TV and drinking beer for hours.

But it's not going to extend your life, you know, so. And people do get injured in sports, so you want to do all the typical things, you know, to get ready for it. You want to stretch.

Hey, if you are a little bit older or you have some health conditions, you probably should check with your doctor and make sure that you're good to go if you're a little nervous there.

But stretching, making sure you have the right pair of shoes, you're talking about equipment and really just a pickleball paddle, you know, so shoes, pickleball paddle.

And I highly, highly recommend eyewear just because, you know, most of your other body parts you injure, you know, you can kind of repair it and get back out there. But eyes are a very, like, scary thing that you don't want to mess with, obviously.

And even if you, you know, you can get even just like cheap sunglass frames and pop the lenses out as long as you have the frame just to kind of protect your eye area. I just highly recommend. Yeah, because some people, it bothers them to, you know, be looking through. You know what?

I got a pair of those at home.

Absolutely.

Yeah. See that, that was, that was good to know because I would not have thought of the. The eyewear.

Yes. And you know, we recommend that. And so you mentioned, you know, the different age groups.

The reason the sport is the greatest sport in the history of the universe is there's so many different ways to play. So there. And there's endless ways to level up.

Like you start out playing, you know, checkers and it becomes a CH scheme, like down the road, like it really is strategy. It builds mental acuity. I just read an article about how good it is for Parkinson's patients.

Like, it really can, like, you know, reconnect certain neuropaths or whatever. And it's very accessible for the community. You know, when you go to, like Naples, there's a lot of like wheelchair playing high level pickleball.

One of the connections that our DAPA organization has made is with the Unified Group, which is part of Special Olympics, and that is at the high school.

So Waverly and Grand Ledge High School have this unified program where a exceptional athlete, which is kind of a special Olympic athlete, is paired with a student athlete and they are going to play pickleball together and do like a three to four week session where at Grand Legend Waver Waverly, they will each have this going on. And then we're going to have kind of like a playoff fun event that Our Delta Qantas group is sponsoring.

We're gonna barbecue for the kids and have them come out and do like a little mini tournament at Delta Mills.

And again, it just kind of like showcases how this can reach just multiple different groups of people, different ages, different accessibility, you know, challenge athletes and even children. One thing that our group is doing and why we're raising money is because it supplements our little Picklers program.

So last year we ran a youth camp where we taught kids. I think the youngest was 6 up to about 14. And my son Drake was out there as an assistant coach coaching the kiddos.

And it was just such a, you know, fun program for these kids to learn. And they leveled up very quickly and were able to learn the sport.

And a lot of them have re signed up for this year and just going to be a very fun, exciting summer.

That's great.

At the parks.

Yeah, and that actually is interesting. We'll see how long it takes before they start putting this into the school system and all the things. So it's coming.

I mean our biggest goal is to get it to be an MSHA sanctioned sport. And I think that, you know, it can fit with the co ed sport the way a lot of these.

There's a lot of club programs at colleges now and it is slated to be in the Olympics. Now we've all been pushing for that and they did announce recently that it's going to be in the next Olympics, which is exciting.

But it can be a co ed sport the way a lot of these club college teams, they play this MLP style, which is a slightly different style than rec games.

And you play on a team of four people, two guys and two females and you play like, you know, the male gender doubles and the female gender doubles and then you play mixed doubles and then you even play some singles. So it's just like a really interesting way to play and it involves, you know, both sexes, which is awesome.

So that can help the whole title 9 getting it into the space.

This is sounding so much like a worldwide movement and you're bringing it right here into the Lansing community and making it so accessible, which is so fun and making it for everyone to be able to participate. It seems like. So it's great. What is one thing that you wish the community knew?

What is one thing that you think is most misunderstood about pickleball that you think you would love the community to know?

I think that one of the biggest things is you can go out to your local parks and you can, you know, be welcomed into. We Call. It used to be called open play, now it's called rotational play.

So Patriarch Towner, Kiwanis and Holt Granger right by Reno's north in Dewitt Township. So you come out, they either have whiteboard or paddle systems.

And these are all designed to bring in complete strangers and welcome them to all play together. And we're really trying to let people know that this is very welcome to a brand new person. You can come out here.

People really love to, like, teach new people so that. Because someone did it for them. So. And it brought so much joy to their life, many new friendships and, you know, just a healthier lifestyle.

And I just think that there's just these barriers that we're really.

With Pickle Palooza and our other tournaments, we're really trying to get over those barriers and just come out to your local park, like meet your neighbors, like play with different ages, like, find reasons for us all to have a shared common goal. And, you know, this fits in with what I have been doing at Reno's for 30 years, which is celebrate.

Find reasons that we all have more things in common, whether it's a sports team or, you know, live entertainment or playing, you know, pickleball.

You know, we come from different backgrounds and different viewpoints, but here out at the park, we're not talking politics, we're not talking religion, we're not talking controversy. We're talking and laughing and having fun. Our adrenaline stuff, you know, getting us all excited and happy to be there.

So it's just, you know, we need more positivity in life is.

That's good.

And we need to celebrate people more. So.

So, Dallian, let's work on getting our equipment.

So you don't have any?

I don't have.

Well, I have. But you played before, right?

I have played. I played at her courts. Not nearly as much as most people, though. So we can say that we're starting on playing grounds.

I would be there on Sunday.

That's all I know. Right, Right. So the sun is coming out and Lansing. Go out to Lansing Parks and practice.

And then in the meantime, we all need to add it to our calendar. So can you remind us again the date and time if we wanna go.

That's June 5th, 6th and 7th. Find us at Picklepalooza with Choose Lansing. We have a website there, so you can find out more details and we'd absolutely love to see everyone.

And of course, I'll have a lot of this information in our show notes for this episode of Community Convo.

Thank you, Jessie. For coming out. Thank you Dadalion for having me here today. This was a lot of blast. Jessie, we're looking forward to seeing you.

On the pickleball courts, and thanks so much for having me. Thank you. Appreciate it.

You've been listening to Community Convos, a podcast from LCC Connect. Listen to this episode and others at LCCconnect.com or wherever you get your podcasts. If you or someone you know would like to feature an event on Community convos, email us LCC-Connect@lcc.edu and thanks for joining The Convo.