Aurora firefighters find community and healing through Pepper Pong

AURORA, Colorado. The life of a firefighter can be so unpredictable on a day-to-day basis, but if there’s one thing the Aurora Fire Department 16 crew Maybe make no mistake, this is their daily game of Pepper Pong.

You might be wondering… What is Pepper Pong?

It’s like mini pickleball. “And a great stress reliever,” said Lt. Mitchell Harr.

“(During) one of my random scrolls on Facebook, I saw a game called Pepper Pong,” he laughed.

Pepper Pong helps Aurora firefighters cope with stress

One impulse buy later, the fun began at Fire Station 16.

“I take it to the fire station and show it to the guys. These guys were so excited,” Harr recalls.

Little did he know that the firehouse’s favorite game was the brainchild of Denver resident Tom Filippini.

“It turns out that Mitch is a very close friend of a close friend of mine, and they connected,” Filippini told Denver7.

The day we met Harr and Filippini there was a friendly rivalry going on.

“I vowed to go out and challenge Mitch, who claims to be really good at pepper pong,” Filippini laughed.

But beyond what Filippini calls “gort” — three quarters sport, one quarter game, he said — there’s a deeper meaning to Pepper Pong.

This all goes back to 2016.

“I got sober. I struggled with addiction and alcoholism,” Filippini recalled. “I was actually in rehab and there was a ping pong table. Just the back and forth during this time distracted me from what I was dealing with.”

This is where the idea for Pepper Pong was born.

“This game brings people together wherever they are and promotes good, old-fashioned human connection, which I believe is an important step forward in reducing the isolation that often manifests itself in the form of some type of addiction,” he said.

The idea may have turned Filippini into an entrepreneur, but at the heart of it all, he says, is giving back.

“We really want to get them into the hands of people who are facing some kind of struggle, whether it’s mental health or addiction,” he said.

His mission now? Donating Pepper Pong kits to recovery centers and first responders, such as the people at Aurora Fire Station 16.

“When the four of us play this game after dinner at the dinner table… We don’t think about that bad call we had, we don’t think about the calls we’ve had in the past. We just focus on beating each other and it’s really a camaraderie, a team effort,” Harr said.

So, while this particular occasion may be a friendly competition to win some Pepper Pong award, the real prize here is joy, fellowship, and healing.

“Best impulse buy ever,” Harr laughed.