Check out LINC's latest work in teaching families lifelong fitness
Like many of their LINC workmates picking up pickleball paddles on this weekday morning, Alicia Byers and Sherry Shumate-Jones were taking their first swings at the game.
But they had children on their minds — the students back at their Caring Communities sites who, like them, would soon be encouraged to play the court game in their LINC after-school programs.
After an instructor at Chicken N Pickle’s North Kansas City courts got the LINC crowd ready with a lesson in pickleball’s rules and skills, the games were on.
And Byers’ and Shumate-Jones’ verdict?
“We had a great time,” Byers said. “I can’t wait to take it back to the kids.”
“It’s great exercise,” said Shumate-Jones. “Eye and hand coordination — all those skills are being worked on, and they’re going to love it.”
The LINC Caring Communities Coordinators and lead staff who spread out across the Chicken N Pickle’s expanse of indoor courts displayed a wide range of athletic experience and abilities, but easily blended into the laughter-sprinkled games.
That’s the beauty of pickleball, said Chicken N Pickle instructor Noah Jackley.
“I see people as young as 7 out here playing and as old as 85 playing,” he said. “And those people can be playing on the same court and they can still have a good time.”
Pickleball will be wonderful addition to LINC’s growing collection of athletic and recreational programs for children and their families, said LINC Caring Communities Director Sean Akridge. It is a sport children can learn quickly and enjoy as part of growing into a healthy lifestyle.
“Physical fitness is so important,” he said. LINC is already offering many sports including basketball, Girls on the Run, boxing, flag football and many more, “but learning a new skill set — learning a new game — anything that lends toward lifelong fitness is where we want to go.”
And on that journey to fun and fitness, LINC pickleball gives children and families another way to go there together.
