Pickleball in Costa Rica Guanacaste

After countless hours posting on Facebook, Whatsapp, email, text and other venues, I decided to start a blog to help keep account of our pickleball activities in Costa Rica.  There were a few clubs in the area when we moved here several years ago, both about 40 minutes away, but we noticed there were no local folks playing pickleball.  We decided to change that, if possible, maybe through the children or teens.  As we were building our house, we realized we could fit a pickleball court in front of the house. It turned out beautiful. We started teaching pickleball to our neighbors at Mar Vista in Brasilito and to our local friends.  Within a few weeks, the court had about 20-25 folks rotating through it at various levels.  We bring in a coach every so often to make it interesting.  Chris Powers stopped by for a few days.  Yoyo was here.We still noticed we were not attracting local folks so we went looking for local courts and luckily we ran into Ron Kirchhoff, who wanted to help local children also. At the same time, my neighbor, Tammy Walker, told me about an after school program in Brasilito now named ACCAI, and they were looking for a sport to be added to the program.  We talked and pickleball was selected! Volunteers showed up at the old Brasilito park and cleaned it up as good as possible. Ron worked with Patrick Heinen of Heinen Engineering, and 3 new courts were added to the basketball courts. We had received donations of some paddles from Mo Garcia, Regional Ambassador in Aiken S.C. and volunteers lent us nets. We were in business!   Read about the ACCAI and the children of Brasilito below it.

                            The Sad Story of Brasilito school children

On September 5th, 2012, a magnitude 7.6 earthquake affected 90 educational centers in Guanacaste, including the Brasilito School. By then over 200 children were left without an appropriate Educational Center to receive lessons. 10 years later the community was still waiting for the intervention of the Ministry of Public Education (MEP). 

Many parents chose to enroll their children in schools in nearby communities but for others this was not an option, either due to transportation costs or because there was no more spaces available in other educational centers.  One mother's story:

                 

"It was a very big event and  the school was very affected by the earthquake. The children then were in tents receiving classes outdoors. They tore down the old structure of the school and the kindergarten classroom. A group of parents from the community saw the need for the children to at least be in a protected area with walls and a roof and  failed a complaint with the Ministry of Health and as a result they were given permission to use the Community Salon, which had not yet been finished. With the help of a private investor they were able to finish the place so that the children would have a space to receive their lessons, provisionally, in theory, while the new school was being built.  In 2015 the children were already in the Community Salon and no action was seen on the part of the MEP.  The community organized a manifestation by blocking the streets. Nothing happened."

She continues telling us her story:  "My son was in first grade and after the earthquake he kept asking me when was he going to be back at school? School never came back for him. He graduated from 6th grade without his school. Although it is true, the Community Salon was a better space to receive the classes, it was not an ideal place due to the noise of the vehicles. It is a very open area without walls and there were many groups receiving lessons at the same time. There was a lot of distractions. The children had a hard time concentrating and the teachers were hoarse from screaming. Time passed and in 2020 the pandemic came. This was the worst thing that could happen to us. There were no classes anymore. The school handed out printed guides for students to submit. Many kids didn't even do them. There were a lot of families with no internet access or mobile devices that would allow them to connect to the online classes.  All of 2020 was very complicated for my family because I had two children in the educational system and only one cell phone with a prepaid package, which was used up very quickly, sometimes my balance ran out in the middle of a class. I also had to choose which of the two of my children I would let receive the class because both of them had to connect at the same time. My daughter, who needs special support, found it very difficult to receive online classes, especially with  math. At least in my house, we had access to internet, but I always thought of the other families that did not have a cell phone and those children without knowing how to read or write and already in higher grades. It was a very big setback. My daughter graduated from primary school not knowing what it was like to have a classroom. She experienced what it was like to be in a formal Educational Center until she entered high school.”

This is only the story of one parent, just as her many others  had different family scenarios and struggles throughout this whole time that were really complex.  The result of this is children with poor academic backgrounds and now they are having difficulty in many matters, specially Math, Reading and English or already quit school.  The scenario is better since they reopened the primary school this year but there is a lot of work to do with those kids that are still academically behind.

This is the reason why we decided to bring ACCAI to Brasilito.  Every Saturday 8 am to 1:30 pm we are bringing  Math, Physics and English tutors, mentoring workshops and with the help of volunteers the youth receive pickleball for over one hour.  Snacks and lunch are provided every Saturday as well with the help of many volunteers that kindly donate the food to us. We have been running the program for 10 weeks now and we can see how the adolescents are developing bonding with positive peers that is so  important to their psychological health development and their social life.  We provide an open and frequent communication space with respect, feelings of warmth, caring and closeness, availability of supportive guidance, and responsiveness from all the people involved in this program. As we keep saying, our goal is to keep the youth at risk from Brasilito in the classrooms and not on the streets, have them engaged in our program with dynamic activities and that they finish the school year successfully.

We are currently looking for sponsors who would be willing to help us reach this goal and continue with our mission. Sponsors are very important for our community enrichment opportunity to continue. Please consider donating to ACCAI. Thank you in advance for considering joining us in this great mission to help our youth have a better future!

We can work together to make a difference. 

Because we are a community that cares!

Sincerely,

Karen & Erika

The flyer

                                                            Brasilito Courts

The first day was a little tough. These teens had so little. One teen had a pair of flip flops two sizes too small. A volunteer immediately removed her sneakers and gave them to the teen so she could play and have some foot protection. 

Within a few weeks of starting to learn Pickleball, there was a request from the teens to have more pickleball time on the court. The volunteers decided that we would open the courts on Friday nights also.  The teens started showing up but so did younger kids in the Brasilito community. They wanted a "racquete" too!  We decided to open up to as many folks as we could.  The park no longer looks abandoned.  The ADI is having it cleaned up. The trees are being trimmed, the fenceline is clear.  We still blow the dirt off the courts and sweep the deep dirt away and every week it looks better and better in the skate park portion. We were able to add another net and some half nets to expand a little. Last Friday night we brought bananas and ice water. The park was filled with pickleball teens and kids, along with little ones coming with their parents to use the kiddie portion of the park which is now clear of broken bottles, dog poop, old garbage, etc.... Business owners came over and told me they were so happy to see the park alive as it was years ago.  Parents like that their kids have a safe place to go. People stopped by just to watch it all. Someone started putting tree stumps out so folks could sit down while they watched.

I should say that none of us are certified trainers or coaches. A few of us are bilingual but some are not. So it does take a dedicated village to get the job done. Its very challenging and sometimes frustrating. In the end, I now say, we don't have to be perfect, we just need to be present, and I really believe that. I remember a recent day when a teen could not get the ball over the net properly. One of the volunteers noticed her grip was all wrong. He took her aside and five minutes later she was sailing them over the net and had a smile on her face. All of the volunteers bring something like that to the table.  The Brasilito Boys, Ron, Jeff Goode, Paul German, AC- who makes time although he runs several local businesses himself and the Mar Vista pickleball group Pickle on the Hill- Chuck, Bing, Chelsey, Ruth, Bob 1, Bob 2, Marie, Carmen, Nathalie, Rob, Kristen, Pete and Lisa and all the others who stop by when they are in town.

June 29, 2023

We were just about to take a 2 week well-deserved break when the call came in for us to take on our biggest challenge yet. Jeff Goode (Krain Real Estate) received a request from Andres Vargas, president of the Association of Desarrollo santa luisa Catalana in Liberia, about an hour from us.  He wanted us to demonstrate pickleball to about 100 youths from underprivileged homes. Many have stories of drug/alcohol addiction by the parent (s) or the teen. Their story and statistics and the hope of their community is below:

Urbanization is located in a strategic area of ​​real estate growth, an important source of job creation.

Liberia. A total of 262 families -of which 78% are households headed by women- have already received their houses and are beginning to form a community around the Santa Luisa I housing project, in Liberia, Guanacaste.

Dagoberto Hidalgo, general manager of Banco Hipotecario de la Vivienda (BANHVI), reported that the investment was ¢6,352 million, and that, in addition, the institution has already approved a second stage for 211 families for ¢5,351 million, whose works are close to completion. start up.

The housing complex is financed through housing bonds and is located in a strategic area in the southeast of Liberia with access to all public services and with potential for job creation, due to real estate growth and industrial development.

The families that live in Santa Luisa I are all low-income, have incomes of less than ¢300,000 per month, (ABOUT 575.00 US) from occasional or informal jobs, State pensions, alimony and aid from social institutions.

Having their own home allowed them to leave behind overcrowding and inadequate conditions to make way for a new reality, where they enjoy space to live together, with ventilation and lighting, as well as safe electrical and sanitary installations.

The facilities that have been granted to them include playgrounds, two multipurpose fields and a 5-a-side soccer field, green areas and communal areas; In addition, infrastructure works such as sidewalks, ramps at corners for people with disabilities, paved streets, road markings, fire hydrants, storm sewer system, aerial electrification and public lighting were built.

The First Lady and coordinator of priority issues in the Chorotega Region, Claudia Dobles, pointed out that “the public investment made by BANHVI allows closing social gaps for these 262 Guanacaste families. The quality of life of these people will improve from now on”.

For her part, the Minister of Housing and Human Settlements and President of the BANHVI Board of Directors, Irene Campos, explained that in Santa Luisa I, 78% of the family nuclei are headed by women; three have a person with a disability among their members and 26 are large families, with more than 5 members.

Santa Luisa I and II are part of the 9 housing projects that are currently being developed in the province of Guanacaste, which on July 25 celebrates the 196th anniversary of the incorporation of the Nicoya Party into Costa Rica.

Here is where we set up on Sunday morning:

Well we had some weed eating and garbage pickup to do before we began! Everyone pitched in!

In the end we had a great turn out and the kids and parents really appreciated it and asked us to come back!

It looks like we have some large areas to chalk off and we can make several courts and 1/2 courts out of it.  We have 4 hours of demos and allowing the teens to participate while a soccer tournament is ongoing and face painting too. 

AS what happens in Costa Rica, all was not as it seems. We got to the courts early and they were overgrown and full of garbage. We got right to work picking up garbage. The local ADI sent workers to cut down the overgrowth and we did clear two large pads. There were horses in one of the chained off areas and the other was too overgrown. We were able to set up two full nets and two 1/2 nets.  The kids shyly started coming over but when they saw the paddles come out, they were all over us. We were soon overrun by joyous kids screaming in delight. We managed as we always do and had alot of fun. There were police present who handled the sack races, races and soccer. There was facepainting. When Jeff Goode saw that the local people were being charged for food, we pooled our money and opened up all of the food courts and there was more happiness and laughter.   It was not without incident. Towards the end, Volunteer Ruth and I were discussing the need for the acreage to be cleaned up as we realized there were cement slabs in other areas closeby but the weeds covered them up. Ruth talked to the mothers and asked if it could be cleaned up. They advised us that they were afraid of the druggies who hung out near the courts and had recently constructed a drug hut. The moths complained to the police but they got no response so they burned the hut down. The mothers wanted to talk to the police while we were there so Ruth advocated for them. It seemed to get a little testy as the police require a "denuncia", a complaint in writing, but the parents were afraid to sign their names to the form for fear of retribution.  An agreement was made with the police to allow the denuncia to be filed anonymously.  We stopped for a well-deserved Whopper and fries (uncommon in Costa Rica)- the nearest Burger King to us is one hour away!

Of course, we recently got news that we have been waiting five years for. Our community of Mar Vista, is going to have our own pickleball courts, courtesy of Nate and Lindsey Parsons. They are creating a Sport and Social Club for Mar Vista and it is already underway! Club ELDORADO at Mar Vista. Nate has an extensive resume in the industry and they own Home Court Advantage which has built courts for facilities for pro tours, country clubs, pro athletes, etc.... Lindsey is a trained chef but uses her business background from Depaul University to run the back end of the business. They are building a house here too. They have 4 children (25 to 12 year old) 3 rescue dogs and one granddaughter. Anyway, those of you who know me know that I watch every single pro tourney and the MLP action every day that it's on. They are very active in the pro arena. They are going to LIGHT UP the BRASILITO area with tournaments, clinics, lessons, and, hopefully, the best names in the sport will traverse through here. They will be here soon and they are very interested in our work with the children, schools, locals, everything.  They have offered to help however they can for our programs and I am eternally grateful just for trying. They are working on exciting membership information that will be out soon.  

Now we have started our own fundraising with a garage sale in the future and bingo on July 22nd and one at the Brewery in August. Bingo in Costa Rica at Perla's and the Brewery in Potrero involves a beer drinking number caller,(we buy the beers)  loud participants, and prizes every few minutes including some free beers and money.  Its a fun afternoon especially during those rainstorms. The pickleball crowd takes over the place and we get to keep the proceeds for the Brasilito kids.

We have a collection of used sport shoes to at least get someone started. Thanks CHRIS POWERS for all the socks for the teens. People ask what we need. We would love to have nets dedicated to the schools separately. This would save us alot of time and coordinating the nets each time for each school. Plus a library of nets of our own. Paddles, balls, would help too. I have a library of paddles but the teens can't practice unless I am there all the time. Of course bilingual instructors coming through would also be helpful.

More pics of

our Brasilito.

I am not alone out here. There are others around the country bringing the sport in for various reasons.  I am an International Pickleball Federation Diplomat for Costa Rica. There are two others onboard now. Brendon O'Conner in Perez Zeledon. he has been running "Learn how to play" classes at the Talari Mountain Lodge.  His email is b1springs@gmail.com or 719 232 1524. Roger Worsham has 2 covered courts in Ojochal. He has been running some fun times with pickleball, cornhole, and other activities. He is at +506 8989 3111.  I believe Roger is collecting all of the places to play right now in hopes of getting them online for Costa Rica. Tony Horpel has been running tours and classes in San Ramon for years.  Hacienda Pinella just added 4 more beautiful courts and 15Love in Tamarindo has been operating for years. Lots of well-known pickleball folks have been through here from time to time. Kyle Yates has been spotted on a surfboard, the Waters duo, the Johns brothers  and others.  Folks are packing in with their own local pros too at places like Pura Vida House in Hacienda Pinella.  I think they are pretty booked up now! Exciting times are coming for Costa Rica!

Pete and Lisa bringing us donations!

The work continues for all of us!  We were just invited on September 9th to Liberia to help partake in a childrens day celebration in Liberia. We are gathering the needed volunteers and equipment needed to handle up to 6 courts!  We also were asked to meet with the Brasilito school grades 1-6 and I met with the Principal of CRIA. Heather is very interested in our program and is a new pickleball player.

Here was our BINGO fundraiser at Perlas, a Potrero bar and restaurant.  We had over 25 pickleball players support the event and some locals showed up too.  We raised $1007.00 US!  Quite the afternoon!

Jeff calling the numbers

Erika and school staff working the numbers!

The players!

Setting up on Friday nights for all of Brasilito to come! Ice water and bananas for the little ones!

The kids around here play barefoot or in flip flops. Well that all changed last month when we got a beautiful donation of brand new pickleball shoes from DIADORA!  If you get a chance and like what we are doing, please drop DIADORA a line and tell tham what it means to these kids! Thank you Nate and Lindsey who negotiated for them and then almost got them taken away in Customs! Hopefully we will have smooth sailing in Customs from now on. (You know who you are and you know what I mean). Heres pics of a few of the shoes! The kids didnt really know what to do. Its probably the most expensive item they ever owned in their life. Most dont have a cell phone or television. Sometimes they dont even have a meal before we start. It's not easy for them but we do what we can. Sometimes we just run to the store right down the street for a piece of fruit or energy bar.  The school feeds lunch on Saturday but they count on donations to do so.  The kids love hamburgers, chicken burritos, anything really but if we don't have a sponsor, we can get a local person who will cook a tico meal for 30 for $100.00.  Feel free to sponsor a lunch under your business name or just your name!

THANKS AGAIN DIADORA!!!!!!

9/9/23  The day started off early with 8 brave volunteers headed to Liberia. We made it through the Monkey Trail and found the tent area fairly quickly.  This time we had less than ideal conditions as the only place to set up was in the street on a hill. We could see water running down the hill with garbage. Ruth obtained a broom from one of the homeowners and proceeded to help clean the street.

We got the kids started right away by just hitting the ball on the paddle.  It didn't take long to be surrounded by this new game for the kids!

Heres Cody and Carmen two of our bilingual pickball people!

Bob played with all the kids. Teens and Littles!

The kids were shy at first. The have never seen a game in person or on television. They never heard of it before. But before long, here come the smiles and personalities....

This kid was our favorite. he kept playing the paddle like an air guitar. Then the kids  told me the  wooden paddles were just the right size to take a pizza out of the oven! We had some good natural athletes in some of the teens too!

This little guy was really serious about his game! Look at that determination!

We didn't get to slip out the door unnoticed! The Mayor Pipo and the ADI Director Andres came to tell us that they have 3 more dates set for us to try to introduce pickleball to ALL of their neighborhoods in Liberia. There are a lot of them! The 12th of October is next at the Liberia Stadium.Then November 11th in Nazareth and we will round it out on December 9th again at the stadium. We have over 3,000 kids at one of them.   I'm gonna need a bigger net..........