Tourism Grant from Klamath County
KBPA Has Big News to Share!!
Your KBPA Board applied for and received a $5000 tourism grant from Klamath County to help support our spring 2025 Blazing Paddles tournament—held locally at the Harbor Isles Sports & Fitness Club. Our club missions are to provide opportunities for social connection, friendly competition, and community building—all goals that align with Klamath County and especially the tourism grant initiatives. Capitalizing on the fact that the largest bracket of players increasing in pickleball is ages 18-34, these demographics support the importance of attracting active people to Klamath County which our premier tournament, Blazing Paddles, aims to do. Last year, we had 184 registrations with 34% (63 registrants) attending from out of the area. Our goal for 2025, is to increase the number of tournament registrants by 10% and out of the area registrations by 25%. Our plan is to work with Discover Klamath (DK) to develop a marketing plan to conduct a directed recreational media campaign (social, print, and TV) that hasn't been done for previous year's tournaments. With the help of DK, we will execute an "All Roads/Paddles lead to Klamath" digital event calendar/campaign that also promotes other County activities. A big THANKS goes to our grant writer and member, Johanna Scholer, and several other KBPA members who assisted in the writing/editing process.
Pictured with KBPA Board Members Deborah Eicher-Catt and Carol Willhite are County Commissioners Dave Henslee, Derrick DeGroot, and Kelly Minty.