The Town of Kingsville has announced the Pickleball and Bocce Complex at the Kingsville Arena is now open.
Officials held an official ribbon cutting ceremony Monday, which was followed by an inaugural game with Mayor Nelson Santos and members of the Kingsville Pickleball Inc. group.
Santos says it's clear that this is going to have a positive effect on the community.
"They're not joking when they say it's the fastest growing sport on the planet. You look at the interest, especially behind the opportunity, to have a new sport that is taking our community by storm. We have the Kingsville Pickleball Inc, the group that has over 140 members right now and they've been looking and working with the community to have a dedicated space," he says.
The courts were installed through a joint venture between the Town and a fundraising agreement with KPI.
To date, KPI has exceeded their fundraising target for donations and sponsorships for the new courts.
"I can’t tell you how excited all of us are," said Helen Dean from Kingsville Pickleball Incorporated. "We are so grateful to the Mayor, Deputy Mayor and all of our community for their support in making this dream come true for us."
Santos says the journey to getting to Monday's ribbon cutting has been a four to five year work in progress.
"I mean we investigated other venues to bring in the dedicated courts. This one we had to work throughout those years, working in unison and support with Kingsville Tennis Association to share courts. With that long term planning that helped provide obviously now these dedicated courts," he says.
Santos says they're excited to give their residents even more opportunity to socialize, have fun, and stay healthy while enjoying themselves.
"Just to see the camaraderie, all in all I mean their efforts to help raise funds with the support from the municipality. But the community as a whole that came together to make this project a reality. The eight dedicated pickleball courts, the new dedicated bocce ball courts that were put down. It just looks amazing," he adds.
Anyone interested in joining a team can find Kingsville Pickleball Inc. and Bocce Ball Kingsville Ontario on Facebook.
With files from Rob Hindi