Pickleball Magazine 1-6 | Page 16

FROM THE USAPA USAPA And St. Jude Join Forces GRAND SLAM CHAMPION Andy Roddick Takes on Pickleball R ecently the Andy Roddick Foundation (ARF) held a fundraiser and the activity everyone was focused on was pickleball. Andy Roddick, a retired world champion tennis professional, was there himself and played pickleball for the first time. Roddick was ranked #1 in the world in 2003 when he won the U.S. Open Grand Slam championship title. Playing professional tennis for 13 seasons, he was ranked in the Top 10 of the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for nine years in a row. Retiring in 2012, he spends time supporting his philanthropic efforts based out of Austin, Texas. This particular event, supported by the ASK Charitable Foundation, raised funds to meet the goal of ARF: aiming to enrich the lives of children outside the classroom. Amer Delić, a friend of Roddick and a tennis pro as well, joined top pickleball players from around the 14 i MORE » country such as Scott Moore, Kyle Yates, and Christine Barksdale to support the event wholeheartedly. The USAPA showed support for the Austin community and was represented by Christine Barksdale. For more information about the Andy Roddick Foundation, go to www.arfoundation.org. For more information about the ASK Charitable Foundation, go to www.ask.team/#intro. Special thanks to the USAPA for coordinating with Pickleball Channel to bring this news update to you. For more information about the USAPA and pickleball go to www.usapa.org.  • TO SUBSCRIBE CALL 724.942.0940 OR GO TO THEPICKLEBALLMAG.COM Members of the St. Jude staff enjoy learning pickleball as part of a partnership with the USAPA. St. Jude is leading the way the world understands, treats and defeats childhood cancer and other life-threatening diseases. Treatments invented there have helped push the overall survival rate for childhood cancer from 20% when the hospital opened in 1962 to more than 80% today. In addition, it has achieved a 94% survival rate for ALL, up from 4% in 1962, and the survival rate for medulloblastoma, a type of brain tumor, increased from 10% to 85%. St. Jude was the first institution to develop a cure for sickle cell disease with a bone marrow transplant and has one of the largest pediatric sickle cell programs in the country. And it freely shares its breakthroughs so that doctors and scientists in communities everywhere can use that knowledge to save more children.  • The demo players were, from left to right: Alex Fountain (SJ); Nohemi Reynoso; Jenny Webster; Sandra Cummings; Marvin Sterling; Lee Hendrix (Ambassador) and Mike Morgan.