SPEAKER_02: 0:00

Hi, I'm Shelly Mauer. And I'm Cher Emmerich. Welcome to Life Lessons from Pickleball. Where we engage with pickleball players from around the world about life on and off the court. Thanks for joining us.

SPEAKER_03: 0:15

Welcome everyone to Life Lessons from Pickleball. We're really delighted you're with us, and we love all of those subscriptions and likes and shares that you've done. We really appreciate all your support. And today we are really grateful to have with us Melinda Al Cosar. Melinda, you have spent more than three decades as an educator, even co-founding Connecticut Experiential Learning Center. And now you're helping people discover the world through travel and pickleball.

SPEAKER_00: 0:48

Melinda, you are a certified IPTPA coach, a USA pickleball ambassador, and a signature travel expert, which is quite the combination. It's clear that everything you do centers on connection and curiosity.

SPEAKER_03: 1:03

Working as Carpe Dincom Pickleball and with Heart Travel, you bring together your love of game, community, and adventure into something truly special. As a signature travel expert, you craft customized journeys where travelers don't just visit, they connect with people, places, and purpose.

SPEAKER_00: 1:25

That sounds so exciting, Melinda. Blending travel, purpose, and pickleball in such a meaningful way. But before we dive into all that, what first drew you to the game of pickleball?

SPEAKER_01: 1:38

Well, thank you so much for having me on this wonderful show, Life Lessons from Pickleball. Um, it's a pleasure to be here. My beginnings started on an island in Maine called Fry Island. When it was introduced there in about 2012, tennis was big, and someone said from Florida, what about this game? Let's check it out. And so we began playing pickleball and people started taking to it. And slowly but surely the tennis courts started to become converted to pickleball courts. And a very funny thing also occurred. My husband, who was raised in Washington State, said, I know this game. And he recalled memories at that point from his childhood when his father used to bring him to his aunt's house on Whidby Island, which is about 25 miles north of Bainbridge. So if you know the story of the beginning of pickleball in 1965, his aunt held political fundraisers pre-1965, and they had a badminton net on their yard. They took sawed-off tennis rackets and a wiffle ball. They played a game that they called pickle pong. And at these fundraisers, everyone ate his aunt Gretchen's Gretchen's Gherkins by the bushel full, and they got pickled. And he ended up telling his story. He wrote a book. It's right here. It's called The Curious History of Pickleball from its origins as picklepong. It's a great fun read. And it's the prehistory. He mentions all of the folks that are known from the 1965 beginnings, Senator Pritchard and Bill McCallum and Dan Evans, and they're all in there. And it's uh so that was my beginning. And it was like, wow, but when we started playing in 2012, it was really not as widely known or played, and you know, slowly but surely, I think after the pandemic, people started to take to it. Um, but we had started started back then.

SPEAKER_03: 3:58

So when did when did it become more than just a game and became more of a purpose for you?

SPEAKER_01: 4:05

You know, when I started getting more involved into travel, after I had been running my small school and um we shifted gears from being a full-time middle school, I you you know, sort of noticed how pickleball was attracting people from different generations. One of my favorite quotes is, Grandpa, pass the ball. Because it was like this young boy and his grandpa who were this amazing duo. And so I was asked by the travel agency that I started with, named All Travel, um, that's based in LA, to run pickleball trips. They wanted to run group trips, and I thought, what about pickleball? And so my first trip was in uh Punta Cana in Dominican Republic. For me, travel has an element that connects people. So that, and when I was a young child, my parents brought me to lots of different places in the world, and we'd always travel far from where sort of the typical tourists were, and tried to be in the country and learn about the people. And my father was really big on having me sort of notice what was around me and connect with the people and the culture, and so I wanted to do that with my pickleball trips and made a connection with a school in Punta Cana that at first was wondering really what I was all about. And I called them and I said, I would like to bring a group of p pickleball players here to work with your students. We'd like to bring something to offer you as a gift if there's anything you would like. And they said, Wait, you want to come here, work with our students, and give us stuff? Um and they wanted me to come and meet them, and I did, and there was a translator, and you know, they sort of understood I was for real. And so we did. We we had about a dozen people from the group join for that first visit, and we worked with about 40 students, and the people on the trip said it was really one of the true highlights of their experience.

SPEAKER_03: 6:27

Let me interrupt just for a second. So, when you said you they worked with the students, what did that entail?

SPEAKER_01: 6:33

That first trip, we took the pickleball pro that was with us, his name is Lane Etheridge out of North Carolina, and some of the participants, um and we broke the group up, uh, the 40 students up into smaller groups of maybe 10 kids, and we each did whatever we sort of decided ahead of time. So Lane did some work with some paddle and and um small balls that they had. Um, I did a rock pass, so just different activities that could engage the students. And then the next time we went the following to the same school, to the same school. So I kept the relationship. I brought a pickleball net, 16 paddles, and some balls. I had gotten a grant from the um Selkirk actually to bring this along, and we drew some lines with chalk and taught the students. Some of the staff actually knew this knew the game, and they plan to continue it. And I will be going back with a group in a couple of weeks for the third visit to check in those kids. So it's that's my real love and joy with this with this sport, is is having it make be a vehicle for that kind of connection.

SPEAKER_03: 7:51

What a cool full circle that you had this childhood education background and you started your own experiential school. And then now with pickleball, you're kind of carrying that same theme. Shelley also has her background in child education, and she's an ex she started her own school too with a group of people. So you two have a really fascinating connection there. That's great.

SPEAKER_00: 8:17

Yeah, that's amazing. Yeah. Um, so tell us about Carpe Dincom pickleball. Well, Carpe Dincom sees the big sees today. You know, I love that name.

SPEAKER_01: 8:28

You know, as we talked about with our students, bring your best self forward. You know, you might have a bad day, you might not be feeling great, but you know, I'm learning at this point in my life, 61. Um, I've been kind of understanding how important and what it means to sort of be present and appreciate the now. And um so carpe dinkum is, you know, is really that kind of sense of here we are on this earth, um in in in human form, you know, having this experience. I I really think of us actually today. I I was thinking about um, you know, the the the hurricane that's happening and and how people are being impacted by that. And I was just thinking about, you know, that we are really a global family. And sometimes families don't get along, and then you have to write right things, you know, and so pickleball is probably a force that can help that can help in that way. And if we're gonna seize the dink and seize the day to bring people together. I love that.

SPEAKER_00: 9:39

So this is probably a good time to tell us about uh what you're doing with that in Uganda.

SPEAKER_01: 9:45

Yeah, so a couple of years ago I started interacting with someone on Facebook named Kabanda Shafiq. He runs something called the Dream Team Pickleball Academy, and it was one of the first pickleball academies in Uganda. It's outside of Kampala, and you can find them, and they have incredible video footage of these young kids playing pickleball on what look like dirt courts. And um, his whole mission is to work with underserved youth and to have pickleball elevate their lives. And he's now recently brought girls into the mix, which is a big deal because the water situation in these villages often uh cause young girls and older women to um have to walk miles literally every day to bring water back to their families. And um I am connected with an organization here in Connecticut called Call to Care Uganda, started in 2007 by a woman named Martha Hoffman. And they've built about 94 wells and changed lives incredibly because you don't just go to the tap and turn the water on when you have to walk miles to get dirty water that you know is unsafe. About a thousand children die each day from diseases related to unsafe water.

SPEAKER_00: 11:19

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_01: 11:20

So Call to Care Uganda has partnered with me, and I am in the process of raising$10,000 to build a borehole well. My my dream and my vision, you ready? Yeah, ready. There are what 4.8 million pickleball players, I guess, at last count, just in the United States. The Carpe Dincom Giving Club. If every pickleball player contributes even a dollar a year as an annual contribution, we could really have an incredible fund to fund valuable causes, right? So I'm up for that. If I don't want to do it by myself, so anyone who's interested in, you know, kind of joining forces, I'm always about collaboration. But that's the that's the idea. So this is the first project of the Carpe Dinka Giving Club, and there is a you know a link to to donate and all that.

SPEAKER_03: 12:24

We'll put that link in our text for this episode. Thank you so people can just click on that as well. What a fabulous idea. We both, Shelly and I have been overseas a lot, and in developing countries, we're keenly aware of the desperate need for clean water. Uh and as you say, girls in particular usually miss out on life because they're spending all their time getting water from the river and bringing it back again for uh, you know, hours and miles. That is fantastic, and that you've combined pickleball. So in Uganda, you are also having is pickleball a part of that trip as well?

SPEAKER_01: 13:04

So it will be. So the plan is, and you know, whenever there's a well installed, there's a big celebration, and I would like to go there. And you know, there's they're sort of always interested in having coaches come, and so um I would put a trip together around that. Um, I really love facilitating trips and leading trips. It might take a year to two years to have this all come together, so I may try to get there before that as well.

SPEAKER_03: 13:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 13:31

Have you been? I have not. I have not yet been to Africa. I'm a percussionist though, too. I've studied um West African drumming and that kind of thing.

SPEAKER_03: 13:39

So you'll fit right in. That's fantastic. So, what's the connection? Uh, you have also a travel, you have your own travel company called With Heart. With Heart travel. Yeah and Carpe Diem uh Dincom is a separate entity, or how are how are they and tell us about both. Tell us about your travel.

SPEAKER_01: 14:03

So with heart travel is really travel that is led with the heart and and opens hearts and minds. So it could be pickleball with heart, it could be women's travel with heart, family travel with heart. Those are those are all under that umbrella of with heart. Carpe zincum just happens to have a longer name. I sometimes have you know trouble getting one name. So I have multiple parts to the with heart, but it's all under that kind of umbrella of um with heart experiences, intentional kind of ways to um have a transformative experience. You know, there's something now that's really happening called um transformational travel and regenerative travel, where it's a little more intentional, where you know it's not just about booking trips or going to a destination and kind of being a tourist, but but what impact might one have on the location and also what impact on oneself from having that experience? Um, you know, people have been traveling for millennium, you know, thousands of years. Um, and it's interesting where we are in the world right now with what travel kind of means to people and what it can allow for.

SPEAKER_03: 15:26

I think the younger generations are really wanting something more meaningful than just to go and visit places too. So the perfect timing for you. So all of us and retired now, that's a big interest of mine too. So yeah, that's fantastic. How do you decide where to go and where have you gone?

SPEAKER_01: 15:46

Well, uh, I just got back from Ecuador, and that was quite something. I was in the Galapagos and Ecuador. Um I am very interested in I've been to Guatemala um quite a few times, and you know, each of these places happens to have pickleball. It doesn't mean that every time I travel I have to include that. Um, there are other things you know in the world.

SPEAKER_03: 16:13

There are there, are you sure?

SPEAKER_01: 16:17

But you know, it's kind of it's kind of nice to think about you know the ways that it could be included. So I was in Australia a couple of years ago and really fell in love with that and actually um have a dink down under plan happening to go to go there.

SPEAKER_00: 16:39

Um great name. Let's go back to your Ecuador trip because that's some place I've always wanted to go. What did travel your travel with heart look like there?

SPEAKER_01: 16:49

So, you know, I was on a trip with other travel advisors for this one. It was a signature travel educational journey, and and I applied for it and was accepted. And so I was there with nine other wonderful, happened to be all women group of travel advisors from different parts of the country. And we were there with Metropolitan Touring, which is a company that um is local to um Ecuador, and we went to um the Galapcos. We went on a little cruise, we visited an amazing place called the Moshpi Lodge, which is in the Choco Cloud Forest, and it was um started by the former mayor of Quito, who noticed that this was being logged and kind of destroyed. And uh since 2012, I believe, he purchased 3,000 acres at this point of um this land that he sort of transformed into a beautiful ecological um center where university students and others actually go there, and you know, there's species that are endemic to that part of the world that he's really that this lodge is contributed to to saving. Um and it was quite, you know, it was quite an experience. I mean, you really do get to feel like you're in this land that Darwin um, you know, kind of did so much with understanding how how evolution worked and these animals, and they're not afraid of people in a you know, in an interesting way. And you know, when we first when we first got there, we we landed um in a place called Santa Cruz near in the start of the Galapagos, and you start driving, um, and on the side of the road, sometimes here we see dogs. Well, there were giant tortoises just on people's yards, and wow, you know, right outside the window. And and so that was like, okay, I guess I'm in a new place, right? So it's pretty interesting.

SPEAKER_03: 18:48

Todo, we're not in Kansas anymore. I'm not in Kansas anymore. What are some of the um poignant stories from your various travels that you can share ways that you've seen change in lives?

SPEAKER_01: 19:06

Well, you know, some of the things that I that I actually experienced as a young child still are so important to me. Um, my brother and I were lucky enough to have parents that were travelers, and my dad had friends in Haiti, and we spent a number of years there visiting um Puerto Prince. We stayed at a place called the Hotel Olafson, which at that time was a place where a lot of writers and journalists went. And we had quite a time as young children kind of exploring and being there, and that, you know, I'll never forget just that in impression that I got of just how people, you know, live in a different, you know, kind of environment and setting. And there were definitely a mix of you know, poverty that I saw, um, but also just beautiful, amazing people. Um, we did visit orphanages, and there is a story of my brother, my mom coming up to our room and our clothes were gone. And I guess we had given all our clothes away to somebody that kind of a young child that we were playing with that that came and you know showed up. So I just think I I just saw, yeah, that that was a very important um time in my life that has never left me. Um, but one of the things that you know is happening now that I think is really uh deepening my understanding of what travel can do is I'm taking a an experienced design course with a an um an organization called the Transformational Travel Council. And it's an organization that's um got all sorts of other um called allies that are part of it who work with um the same type of things that I'm you know sort of uh passionate about, which is this um travel that transforms, travel that touches in a deeper level, um, and and and it in sort of a conscious way. And it it's you know, so I so I'm working on, you know, kind of building my business around around that. And I I think it's kind of validating a lot of what I what I've felt for a while. Um and you know, I it's it's funny because it you don't have to go far to sort of have the travel mindset. I mean, that's the wonderful thing. It's you know, it's it's curiosity, it's um reconnecting with maybe you can call it your inner child, it's it's reconnecting with your spirit, you know, and just kind of opening your eyes every day and trying to find something you're grateful for, and um realizing, you know, we have our breath, we have, you know, just so so many things that we can bring to the world, each of us in a different, in a different way. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 21:54

And I love that mindset of the just when you're saying transformative travel, because I know there are so many areas of the world right now that are just getting so inundated with people. And to really to go right, and to just go and be thoughtful and think about what can we add, not just what can we give, I mean what we can take. You know, is yeah. I love that. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 22:20

Yeah, and and you know, there's also a fear around travel, I think, too, which is an interesting thing that's that's happening, that that, you know, the world seems unsafe, or that what we hear on the news, and and it's my experience, you know, wherever it is, um, and I've been to, you know, to Israel and I've met people who who are um um Palestinians living in Israel. This was from actually um another whole part of my life um having to do with something called kingy and nonviolence, but that's maybe another part it's it's part of this conversation, I suppose. In any case, um, you know, I think wherever we go, there are families, there are mothers, there are children, there are people that um want to have a a safe and caring existence. And most of the time people look out for one another, you know, and I think we just need to keep that in mind and and be open to that. There are a lot more women traveling and and actually solo travelers these days, um trying to sort of have uh, you know, I don't, you know, there's lots of reasons for it, but so I think there's a lot more possibilities than um than not in terms of trusting that you'll be okay when you're out and about in the world.

SPEAKER_03: 23:44

Especially with somebody with your background, your expertise, your heart. It would be very uh encouraging to travel with someone like you who sets it up with such intention and integrity, and there's such purpose about what you're doing, and then that would make me feel so good about being a part of that. So, yeah, it just sounds amazing. And what a one I'm thankful to your parents for letting you start your life the way they did with all that exposure to the broader horizon of this planet. And so, in all of your adventures, and in particular with your experience with pickleball, um, what would you say are some life lessons either that you learned in your travels or from your childhood, whatever, that you find yourself using on the court or lessons that while you were playing, you thought, whoa, that's something important for me to remember in my life. You have some life lessons you can share?

SPEAKER_01: 24:45

Yeah, absolutely. So it's for me being on the court and just being able to stay connected to focus on the ball, let's say, and just to really be able to let go of thinking and let go of having to make decisions. It it's it's a it's a really freeing thing. I I believe each one of us has our our sort of our essence is is energy or spirit, and and that the ego and and the personality and all of the experiences we've had and how we interpret the world and and what how we identify, you know, those are all things that are there. But what we remember and what's really important is you know how how we are inside. Um and that light, that that that place that's sort of I think really love is really the essence of it, um comes out on the court. I I believe you can you know find that on the on the pickleball court. So I'm so I am writing a book about it. Um pickleball in presence, and you know, I don't it's sort of a working title, but I think we're meant to each have you know joy. I think that that's also part of one's essence, and that that goes away. Um, it gets tamped down or it gets shifted, or you know, there's there's ways that people talk badly about oneself on the court. Um, you know, you make a bad shot and you can really feel terrible and you know, different levels of that. And um so being able to sort of recognize like from one point to the next, it's an it's you start, it's sort of a fresh start. And I think that translates into life, you know. Um we have choices at every moment. We we can we can make a new choice about how we're gonna see something, or being able to stop and use our senses and and and and come back into the moment. Um, so I think pickleball can really be a vehicle for some of that.

SPEAKER_03: 26:54

I love that.

SPEAKER_01: 26:54

If that made any sense.

SPEAKER_03: 26:56

Oh, it made so much sense. In fact, I was resonating with everything you were saying. It's like, yep, and there, oh yeah, talking to myself and not very and then being present in the moment. It's like, yeah, breathing.

SPEAKER_01: 27:08

And you know, I I think of pickleball as as as I've said about an adult playground. Now it's all ages, but I love that pickleball is a way for people to have a social life and and for to make those connections. I mean, that's just so true for people, you know, making friends and and just playing. Like it's like going on a play date. I mean, we get a lot of play dates, right? So that's really awesome. It is. Yeah, I have a trip coming up in November that's the sisterhood of sisterhood of it.

SPEAKER_03: 27:36

Tell us tell us about the upcoming trip that you have.

SPEAKER_01: 27:38

What's your upcoming? We're going to Punta Cana. Um, we stay at this Club Med Resort. Um, there are eight pickleball courts there, so it works for a group trip. Um, and it's a sisterhood of pickleball. And I have coaches that I bring on my trips. I have wonderful coaches, um, Daniela Niss and Ellen Korlitz. And um, it's it's really about um learning and being together and sharing, um, people, women from all over the country. My and and those women also have expressed interest in other types of of travel and other types of trips. And I I really, really do love um facilitating trips. So as you as you were saying, you know, you'd feel good about kind of being in an experience that I might curate. And and and that really brings me joy because I I'd really, you know, I'd really love to experience build experiences that that are um connective in that way. And and and I'm a drummer, I I play congas and and and I've had a lot of experiences with um actually women's drumming world music camps, and uh there's you know, there's a lot of power in in um what women can do together, what what men and women can do together, what people can do together. Um wow.

SPEAKER_03: 28:58

Do you like the one-stop shop?

SPEAKER_01: 29:00

So how can how can people find you, by the way? So I can be found online um Melinda Alcasser on LinkedIn, on Facebook, um withheart travel.com, um, travelandpickleball.com. So I do have sort of two websites. Good travelandpickleball.com is one that probably is easy to remember. You bet. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 29:25

You bet. Awesome. Oh my gosh. Well, Melinda, very inspiring, very exciting. Love this work with uh freshwater. What is that organization again?

SPEAKER_01: 29:37

So that is um Call to Care Uganda, is the name of the organization. My fundraiser, I can give you the link. I actually am doing it through an organization called Give Butter, which is like a GoFundMe type of type of thing. Um the Carpe Dinkum Giving Club. You know, I I need to get my sort of my act together with how I can put all this. This into a place is mine, but yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 30:06

Well, we'll put those links in our text. Okay.

SPEAKER_01: 30:09

And if you go to travelandpickleball.com, there is a menu bar that says fundraiser at the top. So that also would be another way to find it.

SPEAKER_03: 30:18

Perfect. Perfect. Oh my gosh. Shelly. Well, you know, I didn't this sound pretty amazing. Yes.

SPEAKER_00: 30:26

Yes. And I, you know, I try to focus living my life with joy and always thinking of that, but I've never thought about it. I mean, I have fun on the pickleball court, but I've never showed up with the intention of I'm just going to feel joy on the court. Like you just said. That just brings me so much joy. I'm going to do that when I play on Wednesday. You know what else?

SPEAKER_01: 30:49

One other thing. One other thing is the patience, too. That's the other thing I love about pickleball, is that we we have so much more time than we realize on the courts. And it's so easy to rush and get into the point and when it's happening. But that's the other thing I love about it is just sort of remembering to slow down. And that also can be translated into life, right? And then I think the joy can bubble up a little more easily. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 31:15

Bubble up. Well, you've bubbled up our joy today. Thank you. Thank you. And we know you have for all of our viewers and listeners. Thank you so much for tuning in and share this. And hey, you want to have a travel experience with heart and purpose and help the world be a better place?

SPEAKER_01: 31:33

Contact, what is it? Melinda at WithheartTravel and travelandpickleball.com.

SPEAKER_03: 31:40

There you go. Well, thank you all, and we look forward to a new conversation next week. Bye-bye.

SPEAKER_00: 31:47

Bye-bye. If you love our podcast, we'd be so grateful if you'd take a few seconds to follow or subscribe to Life Lessons from Pickleball. This ensures you'll never miss an episode and helps us continue these wonderful conversations.

SPEAKER_03: 32:01

On Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen, go to the show page and tap the follow button in the top right corner. And on YouTube, click the subscribe button under any of the episodes. Thanks so much. Hope to see you on the court.