Dink for Cause’s fifth annual pickleball tournament winners were still up in the air by mid-afternoon Saturday, but its real goal had already been achieved.
Monica Hicks, co-founder of the nonprofit, said that 15 tournament attendees had done cheek swabs to be added to the National Marrow Donor Program registry, a master list of potential blood stem cell donors for blood cancer and disorder patients.
Dink for Cause has been adding registry members since its inception in 2022, with more than 250 members added total, Hicks said. Last week, she’s learned four of those registry members had been identified as stem cell matches for patients, and all four had agreed to be donors.
In most cases — about 90%, according to the NMDP — matches give blood at a specialized clinic, with travel costs covered by the program.
“So that is four patients … who are given hope, right?” Hicks said. “That is the most important thing to us. When we found that news out, we were just over the moon, because it’s four chances at life. So that is exactly why we’re doing it.”
Hicks and Mitra Sushinsky, an adjunct chemistry professor at College of the Canyons, founded Dinks for a Cause after Hicks’ husband, Leo, received a stem cell treatment for an aggressive form of leukemia.
Hicks said the treatment extended his life for about a year.
“Someone was a stem cell donor to my husband, and although the leukemia came back, we had an extra year of life with him,” Hicks said. “My kids had one more Christmas with them, I had one more wedding anniversary, and we had one more year of memories. So we are so grateful, and … really it’s rooted in love for Leo.”
Hicks met Sushinsky while taking pickleball lessons after COVID-19 lockdowns, and was bowled over by her skill in the sport. She asked Sushinsky to be her partner during league games — and soon after, told her the story of Leo’s death. And when Hicks said she wanted to host a pickleball tournament for the NMDP, Sushinsky was in.
The nonprofit was formed soon after. Dink for Cause isn’t limited to NMDP fundraisers, either — it’s intended to help organize pickleball tournaments and events for a variety of charities and nonprofits.
But Saturday’s game, and more matches held on Sunday, were all about the marrow donor registry program, with a raffle table loaded with donated items and150 pickleball players cycling through the courts at the Paseo Club.
Dink for Cause has raised over $150,000 for NMDP since it was founded, and through the summer tournaments alone has been able to raise tens of thousands of dollars. This year, they hope to beat out last year’s proceeds by just a touch more.
“We actually have an anonymous donor who matches the raffle table sales, and so last year we were able to write a check for $25,000,” Hicks said. “So I’m sure that we’ll be able to do that … We’re hoping to bring that number a little bit higher.”
