BLUEFIELD, W. Va. -Every fall, United Way of Southern West Virginia holds their annual ‘Dancing with the Stars’ competition, their biggest fundraiser of the year, with six teams raising money all summer long, including one local team featuring WVVA’s Martin Staunton and the president and CEO of WVU Medicine Princeton Community Hospital, Karen Bowling. Staunton came up with the idea to utilize Bluefield City Park’s recently opened pickleball courts for fundraising, with Bowling saying it helps the hospital promote exercise as well.
“…but it’s also a way for us to work within our community here in Bluefield and support activities that, really from a healthcare perspective, that support the health and wellbeing of people…” says Bowling, “…Pickleball is not that complicated, I’ve been told; It’s not as difficult as tennis; and it seems like it’s, right now, a lot of people are really, really getting into it…”
However, they weren’t the only ones wanting to hold the first court’s first pickleball tournament. The Sons of Italy wanted to use the tournament to help them distribute scholarships to local students, with the group giving out more than ten thousand dollars in scholarship money to the community last year.
“The advancement of our children and the youth here… is integral to what we’re doing in Southern West Virginia. To be able to educate our kids, to be able to have a better life for themselves, to help reenergize and reinvent Southern West Virginia is going to be our future,” says Jeff Disibbio, a Sons of Italy member.
The two groups decided to partner together to host the tournament, splitting the proceeds from the entries and food sales. Trena Dacal, the executive director of United Way of Southern West Virginia, says the money raised here is very important to the community, through the work of both organizations.
“It’s vital. These monies are vital to our community. I know the kids that depend on the scholarships are so appreciative of them and then the agencies that we fund at United Way, we make programs come together like supervised child visitation, recovery programs, food pantries, all this money gets reinvested back in those programs locally, and so that’s vital to our community,” says Dacal.
Those we spoke to say the tournament is a success and something they hope to hold again with a continued partnership between United Way and the Sons of Italy in the future.
If you missed this fundraiser but would still like to contribute to either of these organizations, you can find out more on each of the Sons of Italy Facebook and the United Way’s website, Dancing with the Stars website
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