CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – As it continues its work to remake the Darden Towe Park pickleball courts into a modern facility for the rapidly-growing sport, Central Virginia Pickleball is holding a silent auction to raise fund for the project. 

The auction opens Saturday at noon and runs until Oct. 4.

Donors can bid on everything from sponsoring a corner court at the new complex – a $5,000 starting bid – to gift cards for various businesses and restaurants, travel packages and pickleball lessons.

The $75,000 project will completely renovate the existing pickleball and tennis courts, creating 12 dedicated pickleball courts, with repaved and repainted surfaces, four-foot walls between each court and a six-foot wall dividing the back courts from the front.

The project was approved by the Darden Towe Park Advisory Committee on March 11. 

Working in conjunction with the Albemarle County Parks Foundation, the club has already raised $45,000, project leader Teddy Hamilton told Cville Right Now.

According to Central Virginia Pickleball, parks and recreation receives just 1% of the overall county annual budget.

“That leaves very little room for recreational capital projects,” according to the organization’s website. “The few dollars that are available right now are going toward infrastructure work—like roads and parking—at the new Biscuit Run Park. This means projects like ours need to rely on community support to become a reality.”

In 2021, the park’s advisory committee voted unanimously to change two of the park’s tennis courts to six pickleball courts.

Central Virginia Pickleball raised $20,000 to pay for that conversion.