The Lassig Family, in collaboration with The Lilly & Blair Foundation, a parent-driven 501(c)(3) organization, is proud to launch the inaugural Paddles for Possibility Pickleball Tournament.
This Michigan-based event with global reach brings together a love of the game and a shared purpose: raising awareness and accelerating progress for children and families affected by childhood-onset Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia (HSP).
The tournament will be held in August 2026 and serves as the premier event of a summer-long awareness and fundraising campaign across Michigan. Proceeds support efforts to reduce time to diagnosis—enabling earlier intervention—and to fund critical research aimed at developing therapies.
Children living with HSP, particularly forms that begin in early childhood, face progressive loss of mobility and, in more severe cases, may also experience challenges with speech, swallowing, and other essential functions. Families are often unprepared for the reality of a condition that changes over time and currently has no cure.
Paddles for Possibility channels community support into meaningful action. The Lilly & Blair Foundation directs 100% of funds raised toward accelerating research.
When you participate, you become part of a movement grounded in urgency, scientific collaboration, and hope. Proceeds support ongoing work in gene therapy, drug repurposing, and personalized medicine—advancing efforts in partnership with leading institutions such as Boston Children's Hospital, Drexel University, University of Wisconsin–Madison, University of Massachusetts, and University of Michigan.
👉 Play for the love of the game. Be part of rewriting the future.
Link to more information on The Lilly & Blair Foundation can be found at https://www.lillyandblair.org/paddlesforpossibility
