Meet Daily Point of Light Award honoree Olivia Shekou. Read her story, and nominate an outstanding volunteer or family as a Daily Point of Light.
Two and a half years ago, 17-year-old varsity tennis player Olivia Shekou leaned into another racquet sport she loves, pickleball. Shortly after joining St. Jude Leadership Society, a national online cohort of young fundraisers who compete to raise funds for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital’s, she created Netting Miracles. Netting Miracles is a pickleball fundraising platform that helps people put together events for a good cause. Players pay a fee to participate in a tournament and, if they’re in the giving spirit, can donate on site using QR codes located around the venue.
Using this model, Olive has raised over $23,000 for St. Jude’s by bringing 300+ people onto the court. But she’s done more than that. She has built an easy-to-use platform that anyone can use to create their own pickleball fundraiser. In fact, by making her model replicable and working with schools and youth-focused nonprofits, she’s helped organize fundraisers that have brought in over $90,000 for children’s health and other causes.
Olivia spends about 30 hours a month maintaining the platform, helping people use it, and hosting her own events, the last of which increases that time. She also serves as a peer advisor for the St. Jude Leadership Society, where she uses her knowledge and experience to help her peers with their own initiatives.
What inspired you to get started with this initiative?
My family has been affected by cancer, and helping people who are going through it really matters to me. That’s one of the reasons I chose St. Jude’s. Through St. Jude Leadership Society, I saw how individual fundraising pages and leaderboards could get more young people involved. And I love pickleball. Working at a racquet club showed me that there’s a great community around it, and I wanted to bring those ideas together with pickleball fundraisers. After doing the organizing by hand, I wanted to make it easier for other teens to do it.
Tell us about your volunteer role with Netting Miracles.
I start off by reaching out to potential sponsors by emailing local organizations and putting up advertisements for these sponsors around the courts. Additionally, I manage the score sheets, so I make a bracket. And I’ve also coordinated food trucks and handled logistics.
I usually recruit people to help, and I’ve partnered with the Melissa Prandi Children’s Foundation to support the work that she does helping children in Uganda with their education and basic needs. We did an event called Paddles for Purpose, and together, we raised $8,000 for her foundation.
I also have a partnership with Every.org. I wanted to make other teens feel like they could create a platform and run a fundraiser. I integrated Every.org’s software that facilitates the collection of money into my online platform that everyone can use as a toolkit. It makes it easy to organize the leaderboards and score sheets. There’s a dashboard where you can see donations, and there are thousands of charities linked, so people can choose where they want to donate. I encourage people to host a pickleball fundraiser for whatever cause they support.
What are your long-term plans or goals for the organization?
This is something I’m really passionate about, and it’s something I’d like to take with me through college. I want it to grow beyond what it started out as. I want it to be something everybody can use to support their own interests. I think it could be really meaningful.
What’s been the most rewarding part of your work?
The most rewarding part is when people walk away feeling like they can hold their own fundraiser for a cause they support. It’s also knowing that all of these people are showing up for a collective cause. It’s the feeling that we’re all in this together.
What have you learned through your experiences as a volunteer?
I’ve learned that leadership means helping people understand a shared purpose. It means listening to people and their ideas. Understanding what matters to the people you’re working with is super important and making space for their ideas. Volunteering has helped me open up and connect with people more easily, too.
Tell us about future partnerships, programs or events that you are excited about.
In the spring, I’m planning to host another pickleball tournament and raise more money for St. Jude. I’m hoping it will involve more people from my school since it’s a project I’m doing for a special class.
Why is it important for others to get involved with causes they care about?
It’s important to empower people to step out into the world and do things that are meaningful. Anyone can do something like this. At first, people can be a little bit hesitant to run a fundraiser, but now that the process is easier to repeat for many different causes, I hope that changes. I hope playing together gives people a chance to connect with the cause and with each other. With luck, it will encourage people to keep supporting the organization or using the platform to fundraise for another organization.
Any advice for people who want to start fundraising?
Don’t hesitate. It all starts with reaching out to one person for a sponsorship or support. Just go for it.
What do you want people to learn from your story?
Technology is really important to make the process simpler. Organizing an event can be a little bit tedious; it definitely was for me. Using technology as a fix was super helpful. All it takes is an idea. If it’s an idea that’s really important or close to your heart, it’s all the more meaningful.
Do you want to make a difference in your community like Olivia? Find local volunteer opportunities.