The Joy Crazy Life 🌼

Yesterday Dave and I attended the grand opening of Friendly House’s newly renovated building.

The Brentano Building, formerly a church, is home to Friendly House’s vital child care services, and sits next to the community center where the gym is housed.

The century old church has been under construction for several months, and now the Brentano Building's beautifully redesigned space, including its new "lift," will better meet the needs of the community for years to come.

Saturday's family-focused festivities, set up like a street fair, included children’s games and activities, tours of the building, a free lunch, and musical entertainment.

The community spirit at the event was palpable, in part because of the many volunteers working throughout the event. That’s why we made sure to stay for the volunteer recognition ceremony.

Not only did I want to clap along with the audience to show our appreciation for the Friendly House volunteers, but I had a second motive for being there… I wanted to start putting more names and faces together.

Why?

Because I am joining Friendly House's volunteer ranks!

Joy Crazy® pickleball students in September, 2023 smiling in front of the Friendly House Crawford Building, pickleball paddles in hand.

Friendly House has been a vital part of my journey with pickleball. However, even though I know many of their paid employees, I don’t know the names and faces of many of the volunteers.

From the free flowers that show up in the lobby each weekend and the popular Community Yard Sale, to the Elder Pride services and Board of Directors, Friendly House depends on legions of volunteers.

In the coming weeks, I’ll tell you more about my new volunteer role at Friendly House, but for now I want to share why I appreciate Friendly House so much.

Maybe you can relate, or were part of this story...

In late summer 2022, even though I was a scrappy, first-time pickleball instructor with only a few months of experience teaching pickleball (and more than one disability, hello ADHD!) the Community Center Director at Friendly House, Aleris Villegas, and Hugo Cuellar, Director of Community Enrichment, agreed to meet with me.

I did not have any business cards or a coaching resume to present, so I did the best I could to “look the part.” I showed up wearing my typical coaching attire: black shorts, a sport shirt, sneakers, and a daisy in my hair, along with a newly self-printed name tag.

I was deep in the “fake it till you make it” mindset taught to me by my PCC Small Business Development Center advisors, who I mentioned in our meeting.

Thankfully, Aleris and Hugo decided to take a chance on me. I think, in part, because of the commitment I expressed to not only teach the fundamentals of pickleball, but to encourage participants to embrace joy in their learning journey.

Thanks to Friendly House, my Joy Crazy® and PCC Community Ed pickleball classes got off to a terrific start.

I am especially grateful to Friendly House for sticking by me when I hit a medical rough patch. I struggled through two surgeries in six months. Many of you reading this helped me during that time, and I am so grateful. But it was the Friendly House staff who pointed out to me that I had become a bit grumpy.

And I thought I was doing such a good job pretending that I was OK!

Their message was hard to hear, but it was kindly shared, and the grace they showed me was so very appreciated. What a good lesson that taught me.

I am feeling better now and am excited to begin my fall PCC pickleball classes at Friendly House next week. I’m focused on new and beginning-level players this term, and I’m especially eager to continue teaching a Beginning Women 65+ pickleball course on Wednesdays. Spots are still available so spread the word, and click here if you’d like to sign up!

Looking back, it’s funny how one meeting in 2022 led to so much more than I could have imagined. Friendly House gave me an opportunity to shine before I was entirely sure I knew what I was doing. It gave me room to learn, including some lessons that were hard to hear. And, perhaps most importantly, it gave me a place to connect with students and staff that has become an important part of my life.

Now I get the chance to give a little of that back.

And I’m pretty excited about this next chapter.

Stay tuned!