National Park and Recreation Month Celebration

July is our time to shine as we celebrate National Parks and Recreation Month! 

Dozens of parks and recreation departments joined in the effort to teach tennis to new players and also host programs for active players. 

As an incentive, USTA Southern offered $300 for approved events, with a maximum of four events for a total of $1,200 for departments and associations. 

USTA Southern has had responses from many departments describing their activities throughout the month. Here are just a few responses.

Hickory (N.C.) Parks, Recreation, Sports & Tourism

Location: Hickory City Park

Submitted by: Hani Nassar

The venue was the Hickory City Park (HCP) which is the only City Park in Hickory that has more than two tennis courts. This one has eight well-maintained tennis courts, five on the top level and three on the bottom level. I reserve the bottom 3 courts for this event. We had a total of 10 people participate. Some of them had already had Abilities sessions before, so they were ready to play. The activities included instruction, demonstration, tennis exercises, play, cool-down and food break, then match-play to end the three-hour session. The athletes and siblings were elated. Introduction to the next level of play was discussed. One of the highlights from a personal standpoint is the education I receive when I meet athletes who have a different diagnosis than Down Syndrome, Autism or ADHD. Today’s example was Rubinstein Taybi Syndrome (RTS) which is a rare genetic disorder affecting fewer than 1 in 100,000 newborns. It is mostly caused by microdeletions of chromosomes 16 or 22. Regarding tennis highlights, it was the first time that we were able to play a full set and a tiebreak using the official tennis rules.

Nashville (Tenn.) Parks and Recreation

Location: Hadley Park Tennis Center

Submitted by: Terrance Quattlebaum, Tennis Program Coordinator

Our main objective of hosting the Community Tennis Play Day. was to provide teaching and learning tennis in a fun and exciting way for all age groups in the community. The turnout was roughly 160 participants and most of the participants really enjoyed the play day.  A standout moment was with the Tennessee State HBCU kids. The age range for this group was 5-9 years old. Those little participants were focused and very engaged in learning tennis. Some started crying when the event was over. So much so that their director would like to have their program visit us twice a week for the rest of the summer. One way we engaged the community was by posting our event on social media and emailing local community centers and other summer programs throughout the community to participate. We also provided transportation for four community centers that brought 80 junior participants.  

Henderson (Ky.) Tennis Club

Location: City of Henderson, Ky., Independence Day Fireworks Display.

Submitted by: Melanie Humbert

Henderson Tennis Club hosted a Hat Tournament in conjunction with the City of Henderson, KY Independence Day Fireworks Display. For a hat tournament, players' names are drawn from a hat to determine partners. After 20 minutes of play, the winning doubles pair remained on the court but split up. The pair with the lowest score moved to the next court and also split up. This gives players a chance to play with a variety of people they would not necessarily play with or against in regular league play. We had players ranging in age from 11-77. The courts were decorated for the event and refreshments were served following the event. Prizes were given to the player with the highest game total for the night, lowest game total for the night, most patriotic outfit, best hat, came from furthest away, the oldest player and the youngest player.