By Steve Drumwright – Red Line Editorial
Kim Prough isn’t one of those people out to see her name on a plaque or having something named after her for what she does in her community. She just wants to be a helping hand in making her small corner of the universe a better place.
Which makes her reaction after finding out the Friends of Buttery Brook Park had been awarded a $50,000 Play It Forward grant from USA Pickleball Serves, the charitable arm of USA Pickleball, all the more touching. Prough, the president of Friends of Buttery Brook Park, had been summoned to a video call under the ruse of some questions regarding the grant application from the South Hadley, Massachusetts, organization, which was looking to expand from four to eight courts — a $250,000 project.
In a video on the USA Pickleball website, Prough made a statement about the impact the grant would have on Buttery Brook Park and South Hadley. Hana Papaco, USA Pickleball’s co-chair of the grants committee and director of recreational and collegiate engagement, then told Prough that her organization had been awarded one of two grants given out in 2025.
“I can look back now and laugh at it because I had the really ugly cry going on,” Prough said with a chuckle.
“It’s amazing,” she said on the video after composing herself enough to put words together.
Pickleball is a newer activity at Buttery Brook Park. In 2022, privately raised funds built four courts in the town of just under 20,000 people, about 90 minutes west of Boston and just north of Springfield.
Those four courts have been well-used in the three years since, with about “15 to 20” players on average waiting extended periods just to get on for one match. In addition to doubling the number of available courts, the grant will allow for the fixing of a slope issue with the original four. With the Play It Forward grant, the project is expected to either be done this fall or by May, depending on the New England winter.
“We don’t have leagues now, so we’re looking to add leagues with the new courts,” Prough said. “We’re one of the first towns in western Massachusetts to have a high school pickleball club. It started last year, and it’s growing. This year, more and more schools are coming onboard. So we want to be able to host tournaments. It will allow us to be able to have courts for that, while also allowing courts for regular play. It just helps us to be able to do more at our courts, even offering Learn to Play clinics takes up valuable playing time. It’ll just give us more opportunity to provide more offerings to our community.”
Ever since pickleball became part of the South Hadley community three years ago, the popularity of the sport has exploded. While she didn’t know the exact number of people playing at Buttery Brook Park, Prough said through the TeamReach organizing app, there were 1,000 sign-ups for the venue in the first six months and that number is now at 1,800. Comparatively, a nearby city that originally had six courts had 800 users on TeamReach. She said that city is now up to 15 courts with about 1,000 users.
“On a busy summer night, we’ll have 30 people waiting to play,” Prough said. “It’s a beautiful thing to see, but it makes for a very long evening if you’re trying to play.”
Currently, Buttery Brook Park hosts three tournaments, one in the spring and two in the fall, but the doubling in size will allow more clinics, leagues and just opportunities for people to play.
The mix in ages of players is also something Prough noted. While pickleball is often thought of as a sport for the older generations, the addition of the South Hadley High School club team has given pickleball a broader base.
That includes Prough’s family. Her 25-year-old son and her 85-year-old dad not only play but also square off against one another.
“There’s no age boundaries,” Prough said. “There’s very little barrier to entry. … What other sports besides, I don’t know, cornhole and golf can you have that wide of a range? So that’s really what I love about it. I do play a lot of pickleball, but for me, it’s bigger than just playing the sport.”
If there was more space available at Buttery Brook Park, there would probably be more than the eventual eight courts. But maybe that is enough for Prough, who has worked tirelessly to bring a little enjoyment to South Hadley.
“For me personally, it’s going to allow us to serve our community better and grow our community,” Prough said. “That is really what I love to see. Just the people to stay connected with one another and it will just allow us to be able to do more of that, to allow more people to be playing at a given time … and hopefully not have so many people waiting. But for me, it’s just very satisfying to be able to, in some small way, I feel like I’m helping to make the world a little bit better place. What greater gift is there to me personally than that, honestly?”
Steve Drumwright is a journalist based in Murrieta, California. He is a freelance contributor to USA Pickleball on behalf of Red Line Editorial, Inc.