Making a Racquet for Children!

So, I’m the volunteer Regional Co-ordinator for the adult side of the Community Tennis Tournament in London & South East which all sounds very grand but what exactly is it that I do?

Well, most of my volunteer time in the first part of the year is spent networking in the Region in order to encourage schools, clubs and community groups to run fundraising tournaments which feed into our national event.  I do this by going to tennis clubs and speaking to members and coaches, speaking to the Tennis Development Officers at the county LTA offices to see how they can support us and leveraging any and every tennis related contact I have!

As we get into Spring and the clubs and schools start to register their events, I will speak to the tournament organisers about their events and how they can maximise fundraising and raise awareness about the work of Save the Children.  I will also get tournament dates into the diary of my own club and start to get fellow club members and coaches involved to help me run those events.  Last year my own club’s events raised almost £4,000 and we are aiming to beat that this year so watch this blog…

When we move into September I will turn my mind to the London & South East adult Regional Final of the Tennis Cup which is the competitive side of the Community tournament.  The Regional Final will be played out between the winners from my Region’s competitive adult feeder events.  The winners and runners up from that will progress to the National Finals of the Tennis Cup which will be held at the National Tennis Centre in October as part of our new Festival of Tennis.  Top/innovative fundraisers from the feeder events will also be invited to the Festival of Tennis which is going to be an amazing fun packed day to celebrate both fundraising and tennis.

Once the Festival is over I will see what I can do to help with the Corporate Tennis Tournament and hopefully play in it again myself.  Last year I came away from the Corporate Finals with a photograph of me with Pat Cash  – very happy with that!!!!  And once the Corporate Tournament is over it will be time to think about 2010…