Charleston charity pickleball tournament to support Quest in Recovery

LTP Daniel Island gave the Quest Pickleball Charity Tournament the kind of setting that makes a fundraiser feel like a real pickleball event, not just a donation drive. Quest in Recovery and Let’s Play Pickleball used the 8-court facility at 161 Seven Farms Drive in Daniel Island, South Carolina, to wrap competition in music, food, connection and a shared purpose.

That fit Quest’s mission. The Charleston-based 501(c)(3), founded in 2022 by Charleston native and College of Charleston alumnus Luke Shirley, says it exists to strengthen the mental fitness of students and young adults through its college organization, Quest on Campus. The tournament was built to raise awareness and support for that work, which gave every match a bigger frame than the bracket alone.

Let’s Play Pickleball brought the local-pickleball piece into focus. The Charleston club says it focuses on tournaments, social events and community engagement for players of all skill levels, and this event showed how that mix can work in practice. Instead of a narrow competition aimed only at serious players, the tournament read like a community gathering that happened to have paddles, points and plenty of court time.

That blend is part of why charity tournaments are becoming easier to justify as travel-worthy pickleball stops. Charleston already has the infrastructure to support them: tourism materials describe LTP Daniel Island and Mount Pleasant as a racquet-sports hub with 23 clay courts, 13 hard courts, 10 pickleball courts and a padel court. Put that into a city with an active social sports scene, and a one-day charity event starts to look less like an isolated fundraiser and more like part of a growing destination calendar.

For pickleball travelers, that is the draw. The Quest event showed how a well-placed venue, a clear cause and a local club with community reach can turn a tournament into something more memorable than a standard weekend bracket. At LTP Daniel Island, the court action served the cause, and the cause gave the court action a reason to matter.