Micah House Pickleball Fundraiser Brings Community Competition to Redlands

Charity tournaments can be one of the easiest ways into amateur pickleball, and the Micah House fundraiser in Redlands made that clear from the start. Held April 18, 2026 at Redlands Community Center, 111 W Lugonia Ave, the first-ever Micah House Pickleball Tournament Fundraiser mixed community giving with a morning of doubles play, with 100% of proceeds set to support Micah House students and programs.

The format was built for a wide range of players, not just the most experienced ones. The event featured all-ages men’s doubles and women’s doubles brackets, with Amateur, Intermediate, and Advanced divisions, and the round-robin setup guaranteed multiple games for everyone who entered. Instead of placing all the emphasis on a single winner-take-all bracket, the tournament promised medals for the top three finishers in each division, a structure that kept the focus on participation, local competition, and getting more people on court.

The event package reinforced that welcoming feel. Every player was slated to receive a free T-shirt, refreshments, water, and a swag bag, details that made the fundraiser feel as much like a community gathering as a tournament. Micah House also included practical player guidance, requiring court shoes and recommending protective eyewear and sunscreen, a reminder that the event was designed for a community-center setting where beginners, mixed-skill duos, and casual players could all show up prepared.

For Micah House Redlands, the fundraiser fit a longer pattern of hands-on neighborhood support. The organization describes itself as a free after-school program serving children and teens from underserved neighborhoods in Redlands, with a mission focused on students in grades 1 through 12 in low-income, at-risk areas. Micah House says it has operated since 2001 and has helped hundreds of students through academic support, mentoring, social-emotional care, and family resources.

Its annual Back2School Jam offers a useful snapshot of that reach. The event reportedly distributed more than 1,200 backpacks, 140 free haircuts, and 500 hot dogs, showing how Micah House has already built a model around big, family-friendly public gatherings. The pickleball fundraiser extended that same formula to the courts, using a sport that thrives on accessibility to power a cause rooted in student support.