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The 4th Women’s Pickleball Tournament organized by KidWorks, a Santa Ana-based nonprofit that provides academic, personal development, and leadership programs for children and teens in underserved communities, attracted 64 women on April 1 who came to play on the pickleball courts at The Tennis Club at Newport Beach Country Club.
The popular tournament raised $64,745 for KidWorks College Success Initiative, which prepares first generation college students for higher education beyond high school and includes the nonprofit’s College Apps Academy, Campus Crash event, plus engagement with its college counselor, care packages for its college students and more.
Tournament committee members from Newport Beach were chair Kathy Ursini, along with Lori Junkins, Heather Gaughan, Sharon Roy, Jill Schriber, Ellen Small, Wendy Hafer Cox, Kyle Team, plus Leslie Montgomery, C.C. Knowles, and Corinne Morgenstern, all of Corona del Mar. Team is also a KidWorks board member.
Also participating in the event was Leslie Seidner, a member of the KidWorks Advisory Council and resident of Newport Beach.
Tournament gold-level division winners are Darcy Bouzeos, Cheri Gaylord, Jeri McKenna and Shelly Read.
Event sponsors include presenting sponsor Schlinger Family Foundation; Champions Of The Court Heather Gaughan and Sandra Wirta; and Queens Of The Court Anonymous, Helen Fedalan, Frome Family Foundation, Oltman’s Construction, Leslie Seidner and Kyle Team.
“We are so grateful to the KidWorks’ Women’s Committee and the Women’s Pickleball Tournament Committee for the tremendous hard work they put into assuring that our 2022 event sold out once again and provided such fun and comradery as they ‘played for a purpose,’” says Lisa Gels, KidWorks Associate Director of Development.
For nearly a decade, 100 percent of KidWorks high school students have graduated on time and 100 percent have gone onto higher education.
Since 1993, KidWorks has helped children, youth and families living in challenging neighborhoods in central Santa Ana thrive in body, mind and spirit. KidWorks transforms some of Orange County’s most challenging neighborhoods by investing in the lives of its youngest residents and their families. They firmly believe that a zip code should not determine a child’s future.
To learn more about KidWorks and to read its success stories, please visit www.kidworksoc.org..
