Helping Heroes Fest Pickleball Tournament: Project Ebenezer’s Helping Heroes Fest Pickleball Tournament saw a big jump in participation during its second year. Held over two days in Winona Lake, Indiana, the event featured over 179 players and drew nearly 1,000 people, up from 136 players and 500 attendees in 2024. Organized by Warsaw Police Department officer Paige Wood, the event supports mental health and wellness for first responders in Kosciusko County.
The tournament was hosted at the Winona Lake Limitless Park courts, with some matches moved to the Gordon Health and Wellness Center due to weather. Saturday alone had 60 teams competing across multiple divisions. The event also included new activities for children and families to get more of the local community involved.
A Community of First Responders Behind the Scenes
The entire event was powered by volunteers from the first responder community. Jailers, dispatchers, police officers, and firefighters from various agencies formed the event’s logistics team.
“We’ve had great support from the first responder community, coming out, helping to run things. Our whole logistics team is made up of first responders—jailers, dispatchers, police officers, firemen—all coming together from different agencies to help us set it up, put it together and make it happen,” said Paige Wood.
This year, organizers expanded the festival with family-friendly features like a K9 demonstration, a fireman’s obstacle course, and arts and crafts. There was also face painting, hair tinsel, and emergency service vehicles for kids to explore.
“Because pickleball is a specific community, right? And we want to get more of the community out here to have fun, to show them a different side of us. We’re fun people. We’re not just the people in uniform that show up when you’re having a really bad day. We like to have fun and have good experiences with kids, too. We want to invite everybody out, to come hang out and get to know what we do, get to see our gear, get to do activities with us and just have a little fun,” Wood said.
A Mission Rooted in Personal Experience
Project Ebenezer is a nonprofit founded just over two years ago. It focuses on supporting the mental well-being of first responders. Paige Wood said the idea grew out of her own experience with post-traumatic stress.
“It’s kind of borne out of my post-traumatic stress experience and the incident that I was involved in on Winona Avenue, and a way for me to give back and to use my story to help other first responders,” said Wood. “I had a lot of people coming forward, sharing experiences that they had been through and things they hadn’t talked about because there’s very much a stigma in the first responder community about mental health. So, it kind of opened the door for people to start having conversations, and I found through those conversations some other people really needed some help but they didn’t feel like they had a safe space to turn and asking for some help, so that’s kind of how Project Ebenezer was born and why we do what we do.”
Fun, Fair, and For All Ages
The tournament was split into men’s, women’s, and mixed divisions, with skill levels ranging from 2.5 (beginner) to 4.0-plus (advanced). Each bracket awarded handmade prizes for Gold, Silver, and Bronze.
One highlight on Saturday was a match between the oldest and youngest teams. Cheryl Brandt, 80, and Teresa Triplett, 69, played against two young girls.
“A lot of stuff retirees do,” said Teresa Triplett. She said playing the young team was fun.
“Very fun,” said Cheryl Brandt. “… They were so enthusiastic, I loved it.”
Triplett added, “It was a long game. We were well matched.” The girls won the game 14–12.
Winners received custom-made wooden pickleball paddles. “We have a couple different community members that came together. Larry Long and Will Brandt actually cut out pickleball paddles from wood for us. So they cut those out and then our vice president, RJ Nethaway, worked with our partner, Fellowship Missions, in utilizing their different laser engravers, and we laser engraved them, we added some cool wrapping to them, so we actually made pickleball paddles as the awards this year,” said Wood.
From Hot Tub Talk to Annual Tradition
The idea for the tournament came during a casual discussion among colleagues.
“We all enjoy pickleball. We play pickleball together, so we decided, ‘let’s go for it, let’s try and do a pickleball tournament,’” Wood said, recalling the moment the idea first came up at a training session while relaxing in a hot tub.
Looking ahead, Wood hopes to grow the event across the county. “We’ve looked at different seasons, as well, doing more than one a year, but we’ve had some people reach out about hosting pickleball tournaments in different areas of the county, exposing it to different organizations, too, and getting them involved as well. So, yeah, there’s definitely potential for growth,” she said.
Strong Sponsorship and Local Support
This year’s title sponsor was the K21 Health Foundation. There were also 13 “Felony” level sponsors, one “Misdemeanor,” and several “Warning” level sponsors—names creatively themed to match the event’s first responder background.
“We have 13 other ‘Felony’ level sponsors. So, obviously, being first responders we had to come up with creative names. Our sponsorship levels are Felony, Misdemeanor and then Warning. And so, we have 13 Felony level sponsorships, we have a Misdemeanor and then we have a slew of Warning level sponsors as well,” Wood said. “Great support from the community, a lot of generosity coming in.”
Wood shared that even small donations and practical gifts like court squeegees helped.
“So, just a huge thank-you for the community for rallying behind us and letting our first responders know that they see us, they care about us and that we have people behind us that are willing to help us on some of our worst days,” she said.
“We will be hosting another pickleball tournament next year. We’re kind of in now, so we’ve got to keep going with it. I think people would be pretty mad if we stopped at this point. So they check our website and our Facebook to see when it will be coming up next year. Our goal is continue with the kids’ events, too, year after year, to keep that rolling,” Wood said.
News in Brief: Helping Heroes Fest Pickleball Tournament
Project Ebenezer’s 2025 Helping Heroes Pickleball Tournament in Winona Lake grew from 136 to 179 participants and drew nearly 1,000 people. Organized by Paige Wood and first responders, the event raised support for mental health programs. The tournament included family activities, custom awards, and strong local sponsorship.
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