Today Tennis ACT hosted the Volunteer Function, an event that recognises and celebrates the fantastic work our volunteers do across the ACT and region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tennis ACT Kim Kachel <\/strong>said the event was a celebration of dedication, commitment and community spirit, \u201c2020 has been a year like no other. Faced with unprecedented adversity, and various challenges, the tennis community in the ACT and region rallied together and showed its incredible resilience and adaptability\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thanks to ANZ<\/strong> the winner received $5000 to their local tennis club, this can be used towards club improvements including; clubhouse upgrades, maintenance, equipment, uniforms and much more. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The winner of the 2020 Volunteer Achievement Award was Janet Bruce <\/strong>from Belconnen Tennis Club<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Janet has been a key\nfigure in the development of Belconnen Tennis Club, and continues to champion\npositive change for the benefit of the broader community and the sport of\ntennis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Janet has been a\nclub member for 44 years, and was made a life member in 2010.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There is no role\nthat Janet can\u2019t do including social media, marketing, maintenance, club\nhistory, fundraising campaigns, grant applications, sponsorship and is a huge\nadvocate for diversity inclusion and women in sport. <\/p>\n\n\n\n On top of that\nJanet held the Club President position for a total of 7 years. During her\npresident role, she achieved club facilities upgrades including the gazebo, BBQ,\nlandscaped area, PVC fencing of courts, a new hitting wall and the clubhouse\nkitchen renovated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Janet\u2019s approach\nto think outside the box is outstanding, and a perfect example of this was\ndeveloping the \u20181 court 1 hour\u2019 social tennis sessions. These sessions were\ndeveloped after the lockdown period and is targeted towards those women with\nchanged work conditions, such as working from home or part-time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This year, she\norganised spring cleaning of the clubhouse, re-oiled the gazebo, and during the\nCOVID lockdown and volunteered with another member, to take the opportunity to\nrepaint the benches and seating. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Janet was instrumental in developing the Women\u2019s Tennis Network <\/strong>into the clubs tri-weekly social tennis sessions. While successful in terms of numbers, the sessions became increasingly dominated by men. Women, being fewer in number and a low return rate for women participants. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Since its\ninception in 2018, 79 women from a diverse range of ages, cultural backgrounds\nand locations have participated in women\u2019s social tennis through the Women\u2019s\nTennis Network. From one court initially, four courts are now regularly needed. It has attracted women who otherwise would\nhave not been engaged, or tried out tennis. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Many participants\nprovided glowing testimonials, saying if it wasn\u2019t for Janet they wouldn\u2019t of got\non court. Her motivation, enthusiasm and friendship has helped them play in a\nsupportive and friendly environment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n A big congratulations\nto all finalists; <\/p>\n\n\n\n Donna Smith<\/strong> from Melba Tennis Club<\/p>\n\n\n\n Graeme Rossiter<\/strong> from Weston Creek Tennis Club<\/p>\n\n\n\n Janet Bruce<\/strong> from Belconnen Tennis Club<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jean Penny<\/strong> from Melba Tennis Club<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jonathan Mandl<\/strong> from Eastlake Tennis Club<\/p>\n\n\n\n Terry Lenard<\/strong> from North Woden Tennis Club<\/p>\n\n\n\n Terry Walker<\/strong> from Reid Tennis Club<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Janet Bruce from Belconnen Tennis Club wins the 2020 Volunteer Achievement Award.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6150,"featured_media":16775,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16773","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/act\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16773","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/act\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/act\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/act\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6150"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/act\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16773"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/act\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16773\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/act\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/act\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/act\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/act\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}