Most pickleball group chats revolve around finding a game.

Someone needs a fourth. A player is running late. A newcomer is looking for people to play with. Maybe someone shares a funny meme after open play.

That’s what the WhatsApp group at Altadena Town & Country Club was created for.

Joy Chen volunteered to manage the group because she enjoyed bringing people together. It was a simple way to organize games, welcome new players, and help a growing pickleball community stay connected.

Then the Eaton Fire swept through Altadena.

Within hours, the conversation looked completely different.

Instead of talking about pickleball, players were sharing evacuation updates, checking on neighbors, and helping one another get out safely. As the fire spread, the same community that had gathered around a sport found itself doing something much more important.

“Nineteen people in Altadena lost their lives that night,” Chen said. “Thankfully, members of our pickleball community did not.”

The following morning, the messages kept coming.

People shared emergency resources, offered temporary places to stay, helped replace essential belongings, and checked in on friends who had lost everything. What had started as a way to schedule games became a support system for an entire community trying to find its footing.

Over the next 18 months, that same network grew into the Every Fire Survivor’s Network, connecting more than 10,000 Eaton and Palisades fire survivors and allies. Today, it is the nation’s largest survivor-led recovery network.

Looking at what the organization has become, it’s hard to believe it all traces back to a pickleball group chat.

Chen often gets asked how she ended up leading such a large recovery effort.

Her response:

“The answer is unexpectedly simple,” she said. “Pickleball.”

How Pickleball Built a Community Before It Was Needed

Like many people, Chen discovered pickleball during the pandemic.

With gyms closed and routines disrupted, she found herself spending more time exploring Los Angeles on an e-bike. She enjoyed discovering new parts of the city, but it was also a lonely period.

Her husband had already caught the pickleball bug. Every time he came home from the courts, he was smiling.

Eventually, Chen decided to see what all the excitement was about.

She was hooked after her first game.

What drew her in wasn’t just the sport itself, but the people. Pickleball made it easy to connect. Within minutes, players of different ages, backgrounds, and skill levels could share a court, laugh at mistakes, and celebrate great shots together.

Chen believes that accessibility is what makes the sport special.

Unlike many racquet sports, pickleball doesn’t require years of experience before someone can enjoy playing. The barrier to entry is low, and the opportunity to connect is high.

That welcoming atmosphere is what led Chen to take on the role of managing the Altadena pickleball WhatsApp group. At the time, it was simply a way to help players find games and make sure new people felt included.

She had no idea the relationships being built through those casual conversations would one day become a lifeline.

“The relationships that save you are usually not the ones you were cultivating on purpose,” Chen said.

She created the group to schedule pickleball games. Instead, it became the foundation for a much larger community.

When Pickleball Became Something More

The aftermath of the Eaton Fire extended far beyond the first few days of evacuations.

Months later, many survivors were still navigating insurance challenges, rebuilding decisions, and the emotional weight of starting over. The initial wave of attention had faded, but the need for support remained.

That is where Chen saw the importance of community.

Recovery isn’t just about rebuilding homes. It’s about rebuilding connections.

For many survivors, pickleball became a place to step away from the stress of recovery—even if just for a few hours. It offered a chance to move, laugh, reconnect with neighbors, and remember that they weren’t facing the process alone.

“Pickleball gave me that community before the fire, and afterward it became something even more important,” Chen said. “A place where people can laugh again, move their bodies, reconnect with neighbors, and remember that they are not facing recovery alone.”

That belief became the foundation for Rally for Recovery.

Rally for Recovery Brings the Pickleball Community Together

Created by the Every Fire Survivor’s Network, Rally for Recovery was designed to provide something many survivors desperately needed: a day focused on connection, joy, and being together.

The inaugural event brought survivors, supporters, volunteers, and pickleball players together for a day that showed the power of community after tragedy.

This year’s Rally for Recovery will take place on Saturday, August 22, at iPICKLE in Arcadia, bringing people together once again for a day of pickleball, connection, and support.

The event welcomes players of all ages and skill levels, including those picking up a paddle for the first time. Along with pickleball activities, attendees can enjoy food trucks, a VIP brunch club, a spectator lounge, and opportunities to connect with others who believe in the power of showing up for one another.

For Chen, the goal has never been just about playing more pickleball.

It’s about creating moments of happiness during a difficult season.

“That’s the whole reason we created Rally for Recovery,” she said. “It’s about much more than pickleball. It’s about giving people a day of joy in the middle of an incredibly hard journey.”

More Than a Game

Chen’s story is a reminder of something pickleball players already know: the most meaningful parts of the sport often happen away from the scoreboard.

They happen in conversations before games begin. They happen when someone welcomes a new player onto the court. They happen when a group of people decides to look out for one another.

When asked what “Empowering Through Pickleball” means to her, Chen points to the thing that has carried her community through the past year and a half.

“It means agency through community, joy, and fun.”

For survivors who have spent months waiting on insurance companies, government agencies, contractors, and utilities to determine what happens next, having a place where they can reconnect and regain a sense of control matters.

Chen jokes that pickleball gives players the ability to decide where the ball goes—although she admits she’d still like a little more control over her own shots.

That small moment of humor says a lot.

Even after unimaginable loss, there is still room for laughter. There is still room for connection. There is still room for community.

Chen never set out to build a survivor network.

She simply wanted to help people find a game.

But the community created through pickleball became something much bigger: a reminder that sometimes the relationships we build casually are the ones that matter most when life changes unexpectedly.

And for thousands of fire survivors rebuilding their lives, that community is still showing up.