{"id":22126,"date":"2021-02-08T14:53:26","date_gmt":"2021-02-08T04:23:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/sa\/?p=22126"},"modified":"2021-02-08T14:53:29","modified_gmt":"2021-02-08T04:23:29","slug":"kangaroo-islands-dana-mitchell-to-be-honoured-as-the-australian-open-2021-features-the-voices-of-community-heroes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/sa\/news\/2021\/02\/08\/kangaroo-islands-dana-mitchell-to-be-honoured-as-the-australian-open-2021-features-the-voices-of-community-heroes","title":{"rendered":"Kangaroo Island\u2019s Dana Mitchell to be honoured as the Australian Open 2021 features the voices of community heroes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Australian Open 2021<\/strong> is honouring\nAustralians who save and protect lives by featuring the voices of community\nheroes for the tournament\u2019s Live Electronic Line Calling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Behind the Line<\/strong> project will use\npre-recorded voices for the terms, \u2018Out\u2019, \u2018Fault\u2019 and \u2018Foot Fault\u2019 to acknowledge\nAustralia\u2019s community champions including front-line workers in the nation\u2019s\npandemic response, firefighters, surf life savers and other emergency services\npersonnel. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among the heroes chosen is a Victorian paramedic\nwho contracted Covid-19 in 2020, a New South Wales SES volunteer who saved two\npeople from floodwaters in January and a Queensland lifesaver who represents an\nentire patrol team which rescued seven people from a rip at the end of January.\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ambulance Victoria<\/strong> paramedic Steve\nGelagotis<\/strong> said being chosen to be a voice of electronic line calling at the\nAustralian Open is an honour. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt definitely wasn\u2019t something I expected, but I\nsee it as an honour to be able to represent Ambulance Victoria and have my\nvoice featured in the line calling. The Australian Open is an iconic sporting\nevent and I remember as a little kid, in front of Mum and Dad, I would sit in\nfront of the TV and yell out the line calls in different accents to pretend I\nwas a linesman. It is an extreme privilege to be part of the Australian Open\nthis year,\u201d Gelagotis said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SES NSW Hunter<\/strong> Central Cluster Commander Simon\nMerrick<\/strong> dove into floodwaters with a harness attached in a swollen Hunter\nValley river to rescue two people. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe experience is one that I will never forget. To\nbe able to help two people who were in a very dark space at the time and to be\nable to bring them to safety is a feeling that myself, the team and the other\nagencies that were there will not forget. To talk to those people once we go\nthem to shore and the appreciation they were able to show, is what makes\nvolunteering so special and why this country is so great,\u201d Merrick said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kyal Thornton<\/strong> from Tallebudgera Life\nSaving Club<\/strong> led a patrol of volunteers who rescued seven people who were\ncaught in a rip on Australia Day with one swimmer needing resuscitation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTo have my voice featured on the electronic line\ncalling is me doing it on behalf of the whole patrol group. I think they all\ndeserve to be recognised, they did a great job on the day and everyone went\nhome safely,\u201d Thornton said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Heroes have been chosen from every state and\nterritory and reflect unique aspects of Australian life.\nOther heroes featured include Dana Mitchell<\/strong> from Kangaroo Island\nin South Australia, which suffered the devastating impact of the 2020\nbushfires, a Northern Territory volunteer, Reanna Sanders<\/strong>, who cooks and\nserves 100 free meals to people in need and a swimming instructor, Jackie<\/strong>\nRousseau<\/strong>, who developed a free program in the ACT to prevent drownings\nof children whose family are unable to afford lessons.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Australia\u2019s busiest volunteer sea rescue service,\nFremantle Sea Rescue from Western Australia is represented by skipper, David\nHadlow<\/strong> and the efforts of Tasmania\u2019s Fire Brigade Campania branch in\nbringing the community together during Covid-19 is acknowledged through second officer, Kate Gilham<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Implemented as part of the tournament\u2019s COVIDSafe\nprotocols, Live Electronic Line Calling has also reduced the number of people\nrequired onsite at Melbourne Park. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Live Electronic Line Calling is delivered through\nremote tracking cameras around the court, automatically sending the audio line\ncalls in real time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Behind the Line<\/strong> Community Heroes <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kyal Thornton <\/td>Tallebudgera Surf Life Saving Club <\/td>Patrol captain <\/td>Qld <\/td><\/tr>
Steven Gelagotis <\/td>Ambulance Victoria <\/td>Paramedic <\/td>Vic <\/td><\/tr>
Simon Merrick <\/td>NSW SES <\/td>Cluster Commander <\/td>NSW <\/td><\/tr>
Dana Mitchell <\/td>Kangaroo Island Wildlife Park <\/td>Owner <\/td>SA <\/td><\/tr>
Jackie Rousseau <\/td>Royal Life Saving <\/td>Program developer <\/td>ACT <\/td><\/tr>
Reanna Sanders <\/td>Aunty\u2019s Free Feeds <\/td>Founder <\/td>NT <\/td><\/tr>
Kate Gillham <\/td>Tasmania Fire Service <\/td>Volunteer <\/td>Tas <\/td><\/tr>
David Hadlow <\/td>Fremantle Sea Rescue <\/td>Rescue Skipper <\/td>WA <\/td><\/tr>
Stuart Williams <\/td>Victoria Police <\/td>First Constable <\/td>Vic <\/td><\/tr>
Tanya Brooks <\/td>Victoria Police <\/td>Sergeant <\/td>Vic <\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Australian Open 2021 is honouring Australians who save and protect lives by featuring the voices of community heroes for the tournament\u2019s Live Electronic Line Calling.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5736,"featured_media":22128,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/sa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/sa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/sa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/sa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5736"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/sa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22126"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/sa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22126\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/sa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/sa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/sa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/sa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}