Pickleball BC (“PBC”) Attendance at The Vancouver 2025 Wellness Show

​PBC’s Wellness Show with full-size pickleball court.

March 10, 2025, Vancouver, BC—On February 1st & 2nd, 2025 at the Vancouver, Convention Centre, Pickleball BC Association (“PBCA”) organized and participated in The Wellness Show with a booth plus a full-size pickleball demonstration court.

About The Wellness Show
According to the Show organizers:

• For its 32nd year, The Wellness Show brought over 200 exhibitors and speakers who shared the latest wellness trends and top health products.
• Wellness Trends at the 2025 Show:
  • Mental Wellness & Mindfulness: Workshops and exhibitor booths that provide stress-reducing tools, meditation techniques, and emotional well-being strategies to balance life’s demands
  • Sustainable Living: With sustainability at the forefront, eco-friendly products and services that focus on reducing waste and environmental impact in personal health and beauty routines
  • Gut Health & Nutrition: Workshops and cooking demos that explore the critical connection between gut health and overall wellness, featuring vendors with clean, plant-based food options.

Pickleball’s Health and Wellness Benefits
Pickleball definitely aligns with the Show’s health and wellness objectives. In fact (based on Psychology Today findings), several studies have shown that playing pickleball, or racquet/paddle sports in general, had been known to extend life expectancy. This is due to the required full-body workout on the court, including brain challenges such as hand-eye coordination plus anticipating your opponent’s shot and positioning yourself accordingly to defend that shot. And besides, most players average 800 to 1,000+ calorie “burn” per 90 minutes of matches!

Sam Goode North Vancouver Pickleball Association
PBCA reported: “With the significant support of Sam Goode, North Vancouver, and 35 other volunteers from around the Lower Mainland—PBCA set up a full-size pickleball court the Wellness Show floor space for the third year in a row.

Over the course of the two Show days, about 170 people (both adults and juveniles) were introduced to the game of pickleball live on the court. Our expectation was more than 250 but due to the heavy snowfall early Sunday the overall Show attendance was down by about 1/3 as well.

Paddles were generously provided by Acorn Pickleball, including 2 as prizes. My personal thanks to all the volunteers that did attend and help and the 40 other individuals that offered to come help!”

Past Attendance: PBCA and The Vancouver Wellness Show 2024
Excerpts from PoCoMo Pickleball Club’s President Julie McRitchie’s column from News From Our Clubs in the Kitchen Sink, April 2024 issue:

“Back in February 2024, an interesting elderly man approached our exhibitor’s booth at the 31st Annual Wellness Show. It was the second year in a row that PBCA had been an exhibitor at The 2024 Wellness Show held at Canada Place. …

Back to the interesting man who stood at the sidelines and watched maybe for 30 minutes. ‘Build a court’,  I said, where, for you? This man has a 44-acre ranch, which is a camp for kids who have serious medical challenges. The camp is called Zajac Ranch and throughout the year, various camps are held for kids and adults with various chronic illnesses and disabilities, or camps held for leadership training in various medical fields.

Mr. Zajac has a full-size gym on the property and wants to put lines in and maybe build two courts outside. We made arrangements to go out and see the property and help with his ideas. For now, we started by lining his gym for pickleball, help him get the equipment needed while he talked to his team about redesigning some of the back property and the levelling of the parking lot.

Who knew that by having a booth at the Wellness Show would end up making a huge impact for kids at the Zajak Ranch for many years to come. Thank you volunteers.

Everyone has a story about pickleball and what it means to us as an individual. Somehow it just keeps growing, getting better and whether it's for our own health reasons or in this case, to put a smile on someone’s face at camp so that they can hold a paddle, hit the ball over the net and feel like a champion pro for that minute—it’s the greatest game around.”

For any comments or suggestions, please contact:
David Snell President PBCA
[email protected]