Project designed to create a sense of community.

Members of the Alpine community came out for an evening of Pickleball and pizza Monday night at Ferry Peak Park.

They were celebrating a new court, just completed at a popular community park that has already been developed for basketball and playground equipment.

Shay Scaffide with the Alpine Recreation Department has been working on the project with a person who understands design and development of courts.

“I met with John Gullo,” a part time resident of the valley who has designed Pickleball facilities in other locations. He was part of the donation for the project.  Community members raised additional funds.

“He penciled out the direction of the court so that the sun is not in your eyes rising or setting. Then he mapped out the direction for the space between the courts and luckily we had 90 percent of the cement already here.” The concrete also serves the basketball facilities at the park.

For Scaffide, it was a natural to bring the developing sport to Alpine.

“I started playing two summers ago and became completely obsessed with it,” she explained. “I started playing at the RV Park and with the Star Valley Ranch Mtn. View Pickle Ball group.

She continued, “What’s ironic, it started with an older dynamic [group] and now it’s caught on with the 18-40 crowd.”

Shay noted the park will continue to be used for a variety of activities “We’ll still have basketball at the courts for the kids, but we can also get the kids started with picklelball and get them out of the house.”

Ultimately the project is designed to bring the community together.

“The biggest thing is we want to do is  create community,” Scaffide concluded. “That’s why I did the music series in Alpine.

An Alpine Pickleball app will be created to coordinate schedules.