Rich Beauvais and Janet Shandonay-Beauvais do the ribbon cutting on the Court of Dreams pickleball facility on June 5, 2025 at the John and Melissa Besse Sports Park in Gladstone. (Adam Hinch/Daily Press)

GLADSTONE — It was the official opening of the Court of Dreams pickleball courts in Gladstone at the John and Melissa Besse Sports Park here Thursday.

Richard Beauvais and Janet Shandonay-Beauvais were the founders of bringing pickleball to the Upper Peninsula.

“This is the only eight-court pickleball facility in the U.P.,” Richard Beauvais said. “We have over 160 members who come to play but it is also open to the whole community to come down and learn and play pickleball which is the fastest growing sport over the last year.”

Many local businesses have stepped up to help make this vision a reality.

“Pickleball is a game people can get addicted to,” Shandonay-Beauvais said. “You don’t have to be a perfect athlete to play this sport.”

Richard Beauvais believes that this complex will bring people from all over to come play.

“This is great for our community,” he said. “Because people will come from all over which will lead to restaurants, stores and motels getting high levels of revenue into the community.”

The group started by using duct tape on the old courts at Jones School. They ended up re-surfacing those courts after a fundraiser in 2021, but quickly learned that that would not be enough room for the amount of people that were coming to play.

In October of 2021 the idea of building a new facility was brought to the city commission. In the summer of 2003 the group had raised $265,000, but were still $100,000 short of what was needed. The donors raised another $60,000 and the Michigan Economic Development Corporation contributed to the project.

The courts are open daily from sunrise to sunset and have organized times for members from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. Monday-Saturday.