Miriam Pengel hits a backhand during a pickleball match at the Sunrise Park courts in Rohnert Park on Monday, Oct. 6, 2025. (Christopher Chung/The Press Democrat)
Pickleball is the fastest growing sport in the country, and pickleballers are known for being fiercely passionate about their play.
In Rohnert Park, this passion recently fueled an incredible grassroots fundraiser and the dramatic push to effectively double the total number of permanent pickleball courts at Sunrise Park.
The effort, spearheaded by the nonprofit Rohnert Park Pickleball Club, brought the total number of permanent courts to 12 from six, converting six temporary pickleball courts and eliminating two underused tennis courts in the process. All told, more than 125 members of the community donated over $32,000 in less than three weeks -- a turnout that shocked just about everyone involved.
The courts were completed in early October and are now open for play.
Miriam Pengel, one of the Rohnert Park pickleball ambassadors who helmed the local effort, said the new courts are a testament to the hard work and camaraderie of people committed to improving their community.
"We built a village and that village came together to make change," said Pengel, 62. "This is what happens when people care."
The push for new permanent courts is part of a recent trend to provide more places to play pickleball. As the sport has become more popular -- pickleball experienced a 45.8% increase in participation in 2024 alone, according to the Sports and Fitness Industry Association -- a growing number of communities are converting sparsely used tennis courts to pickleball courts.
This summer, the New York Times spotlighted this trend by tracking the changes with images from space.
Pickleballers in Rohnert Park began discussing this move several years ago. While players were using the temporary courts, many complained about the hodgepodge of lines overlaid on the tennis courts, and the nuisance of maintaining temporary nets that move around on wheels.
Club members went to the city for a solution and the city agreed to help. Then budget became an issue, and the project kept getting pushed back.
Things dragged on. Finally, earlier this year, the Rohnert Park Pickleball Club decided to take matters into its own hands. Representing the club, Miriam Pengel and her sister Molly Pengel asked city officials to allow them to raise funds for the conversion independently. The city agreed, so long as the Department of Public Works could do the work.
"We were like dogs with a bone -- we weren't giving up," said Molly Pengel, 58.
With newfound support from the city, the Rohnert Park Pickleball Club set out on Sept. 1 to raise $20,000.
Money poured in. Donations ranged from $10 to $1,000 and more. By Sept. 14, more than 125 of the 1,900 members had donated and the group had amassed more than $32,000, all from individual pickleball players. They stopped the fundraiser, shocked.
"I don't think any of us expected to get that kind of support," Miriam Pengel said. "The total included no donations from businesses at all -- it really was a testament to the commitment on the part of our members to making Sunrise Park an even better place to play."
Once the club raised the money, the group had to move quickly to secure the materials for the city to use when building out the permanent courts.
The first order of business: Buying poles, nets and paint.
The Pengel sisters, both former lieutenants in the San Francisco Police Department, stepped up for this job. The duo shopped around and locked down good prices for these items from L&M Distribution Inc., a sporting equipment and supplies company in San Rafael, and brought everything back to Rohnert Park in Molly Pengel's pickup.
At the end of September, the city began installing poles into the cement, stringing up nets, and repainting the court surface for pickleball instead of tennis. Over the course of about a week, the two tennis courts at Sunrise Park were converted into six permanent pickleball courts.
The new courts opened earlier this month.
Almost immediately, players expressed excitement about the upgrade to facilities at their "home" park.
Monica Harrison, 61, said the upgrade likely will attract more competitive play -- a reality that should, at least in theory, help her and other club members improve their games over time.
"Temporary courts are often for people who are just starting, while permanent courts are where people want to play more seriously," said Harrison, who contributed to the fundraiser. "We'll still have courts for beginners, but now those people who play at a higher level will want to come to Sunrise [Park], too."
Miriam Pengel agreed, citing other grassroots efforts in Windsor and other Sonoma County communities that yielded similar results.
She added that she hopes contributors have a sense of ownership of the new courts.
"When you contribute money to something like this, you get a sense of empowerment," she said. "I think people who were a part of the fundraiser are going to be that much more inclined to take good care of what we've created."
To celebrate these contributors, the Pengel sisters said the Rohnert Park Pickleball Club will erect a donor wall by the end of the year. The group also has celebrated many of the fundraising contributors on its Facebook page.
In the meantime, with the six new permanent courts, Sunrise Park now has 12 full-time, year-round pickleball courts, making it the largest free pickleball-specific destination in the southern part of the county.
These courts compliment 33 new courts at Rohnert Park's Centerline 33, a members-only facility in a former 16-screen movie theater scheduled to open later this year.
For many, these new digs are great news for the continued growth of the game.
Miriam Pengel said this "treasure-trove" of courts makes Rohnert Park the pickleball capital of Sonoma County.
Kathy Kerst, a pickleballer who is largely considered the queen of the game in the North Bay, applauded the new digs at Sunrise for providing more options on which locals can pickle.
"Across the county we now have more than 50 public courts," said Kerst, a volunteer USA Pickleball ambassador who plays most often at Finley Community Park in Santa Rosa. "That means a whole lot of opportunities for current players to play, and for new people to come and learn."
For others, the additions at Sunrise Park deliver a much broader lesson.
Rohnert Park City Manager Marcela Piedra said the grassroots effort behind the new permanent courts represents the very best of what can happen when people join forces for the betterment of their community.
"[This] shows what's possible when residents and City share a commitment to community well-being," she said. "Together, we're building parks that bring people together."