September 2016

Happy fall! Hope you enjoy this issue of LOve the Game!

Lisa West
lwest@ci.oswego.or.us
503-697-2832 direct
503-635-5550 front desk


Special Olympics Campaign
You probably know by now that the Tennis Center runs the only Special Olympics tennis program in the Pacific Northwest, but do you know what that means? For an hour on Saturdays during the fall, winter and spring, all four courts are filled with athletes learning tennis skills and volunteers helping out however they're needed. Longtime instructor Gerri Allen does an amazing job the program. The athletes do not pay to participate. The Tennis Center covers the cost of the program, which includes equipment, court time, staff time, prizes for the participants at season's end, and a volunteer appreciation lunch once a year.

Whenever we publicize our Special Olympics program, we get a lot of inquiries from people who want to volunteer. We love our volunteers, but we realize this isn't an option for everyone, for a number of reasons. So we've come up with another way you can help: a donation campaign. This will help defray our costs, keep the equipment in good condition (we use a lot of foam balls and while their life expectancy is much better than that of regular pressurized balls, they do start to come apart after a while), and allow us to provide more and better prizes at season's end. Every donation we receive stays in the Special Olympics program.

If you'd like to help, here's how:

Go  here to make your donation. You'll see this page:

Just enter your donation amount, and check out (you will need to create an account with Parks and Rec if you don't have one). That's all there is to it! Your donation will help this important program, and make you feel good, too!

Recycling
In case you missed it, there was an article in The New York Times on Saturday about efforts to make tennis more green, especially in terms of tennis ball recycling. We made a commitment in 2013 that we wouldn't send even one more ball to a landfill and we have kept that commitment. Not only do we donate all of our used lesson balls, but we take in your used tennis balls and donate them as well. I would estimate that we donate over 10,000 balls a year to all kinds of organizations and individuals. We have worked with both ReBounces and Retour Tennis., companies mentioned in the article. Maybe one day we'll resurface our courts with used tennis balls!

One other note: This fall we made the switch to Penn balls for our classes and for sale in the office. We believe the ball itself is very similar to what we used before. We made this change solely because the Penn can is 100% recyclable.

Lottery Winner
Well, hes not THAT kind of lottery winner, but Jim DeWeese was the #1 pick in this year's seasonal lottery, so that's close enough for us! As such, we thought it would be fun to learn a little more about Jim.

Jim is the Regional Developer for Oregon for Massage Envy, and he and his wife, Rita, own two clinics.

Jim has been playing at the Tennis Center for about 15 years. He plays on his lottery court with his wife Rita DeWeese, Calvin Chen, Kristi Vargas. Brian Madden, Karie Richardson, and Kathy Budnick. Additionally, he's played on USTA teams and taken classes at the Tennis Center. His daughter, Sarah, is part of the Special Olympics program, and Jim and Rita have both volunteered for that over the years.

Tennis isn't Jim's only sport. "I still play a lot of basketball and still compete in national and international basketball tournaments at my advanced age," he says. "It's very important to stay active and have a social network, which tennis and basketball provide." He adds that although he and Rita are members at the MAC, they prefer to play with their LO Tennis friends!

Lottery Courts
We still have some lottery courts available. Please give us a call at the front desk at 503-635-5550 for information about available times. We can pro-rate the court for you since the season has already started.



New Addition

Our customers are very excited about our new vending machine! If you haven't noticed it yet, it's in the walkway, near courts 2 and 3. The machine takes debit and credit cards (and cash, of course), and there is a range of more healthy and less healthy items, so there should be something for you if you miss breakfast, or if you need some sugar after a match! We do ask that you please respect our facility and be thoughtful about what you take onto the courts. Most of all we, hope you enjoy the convenience of having the machine!

 

 

Shout Outs

Congratulations to our USTA teams who represented us at sectionals last month! Captains were Ann Skoog, Barb Lipscomb, and Tennis Center instructor Brian Hughes.



 

Enjoy the rest of the good weather!