Cadillac Rotary puts $92,000 behind two public courts at Baker College

Two more public pickleball courts are coming to northern Michigan, funded the old-fashioned way: a Rotary club writing a check. The Rotary Club of Cadillac is investing 92,000 dollars to build two courts on the Baker College campus in Cadillac, open to the general public, with construction scheduled for spring or summer after the club's annual fundraising auction.

How the project won the money

The selection was genuinely competitive. The Cadillac Rotary opened its annual project process on August 17, took proposals through September 15, and vetted three submissions the next day. Finalists made 10-minute presentations followed by five-minute question sessions on October 6, and the club's vote was, by its own account, close. Baker College's pitch won on breadth: two courts on a 66-acre campus, free to use, aimed at every age band in town.

Randy Hill, the campus director and a Rotary member who submitted the proposal, framed the need in the plainest terms: the existing courts in Cadillac are always full. Anyone who plays in a small city knows exactly what that means: waiting rotations, shortened games, players giving up and going home. Two courts will not solve that arithmetic, but they move it.

The full courts problem is real data

Hill's observation that Cadillac's courts are always full matches what parks departments across the Midwest report: pickleball court utilization rates that dwarf every other racquet facility they manage. In towns the size of Cadillac, roughly 10,000 people, two new courts can shift the local supply by a third or more overnight. That is why Rotary-scale investments matter here in a way they would not in a metro: the marginal court changes real behavior for hundreds of households.

The college's community-asset strategy

For Baker College's Cadillac campus, the courts continue a deliberate pattern. The campus already hosts The Hive, an 18-hole disc golf course open to the public, and Hill pointed to unused parking lot space as exactly the kind of land a community-partner college should put to work. There is also a recruitment angle he stated openly: quality courts are an asset for students, and possibly a draw for prospective ones who love the sport, with a knock-on benefit to the local economy.

The proposal arrived with four formal letters of support, from the Alliance for Economic Success, the Cadillac Area YMCA, the Cadillac Area Chamber of Commerce and the Cadillac Area Visitors Bureau. That lineup, economic development, recreation, business and tourism, is the full civic stack, and it is why the project reads as a community plan rather than a campus perk.

There is also a lesson in the vote being close. The two losing proposals presumably had merit, and the Rotary's process, public proposal window, timed presentations, member vote, gave the community a genuine choice. That legitimacy matters once construction starts and the inevitable questions about access and upkeep arrive: the courts were chosen, not imposed, and the choosers' names are attached.

The Rotary funding mechanics

The money comes primarily from the club's annual auction at NanBop Farms on May 22, its primary fundraiser of the year, with committee planning starting November 5. Rotary president Chad Denike described the selection logic: projects that impact the community positively and serve as many people as possible, a test the courts pass by serving young players, seniors and everyone between. The courts will carry the Rotary Club's name in official recognition.

Why colleges keep saying yes

Baker College's eagerness fits a broader pattern: small regional campuses repositioning as community hubs as enrollment pressure reshapes their economics. Disc golf, public courts, walking trails, these assets cost little against their goodwill return, and they bring local residents onto campus who would otherwise never visit. For Cadillac, the arrangement converts private land into public recreation without a dollar of city money, which is why the Chamber, the YMCA and the Visitors Bureau all signed letters.

The small-city courts playbook

Cadillac's project is a working example of how court infrastructure actually gets built outside metro markets: not by city bond measures, but by civic organizations with a fundraiser, a partner with land, and a measurable local need. The timeline is honest, too. Fundraise in May, build in spring or summer, open next year. Communities waiting on their own courts should note the sequence: the letters of support and the competitive process came before the check, not after.

What to watch

The auction total on May 22 will determine whether the 92,000 dollar target holds or the project scales. If the build lands on schedule for next year, Cadillac gets its first genuinely high-quality public courts, and Baker College gets the most visible community asset on its campus since The Hive. For a town whose courts are always full, the opening day queue will be the story.

Sources

• 9&10 News - Two new pickleball courts coming to Baker College via Rotary funding
• Baker College - Rotary Club of Cadillac project will bring pickleball courts to campus

Sources checked 20 Oct 2026. Header image is illustrative, not a photo of the events described.