{"id":19955,"date":"2019-02-07T07:59:09","date_gmt":"2019-02-06T20:59:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/?p=19955"},"modified":"2019-02-07T07:59:09","modified_gmt":"2019-02-06T20:59:09","slug":"volunteers-shine-at-ao","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/news\/2019\/02\/07\/volunteers-shine-at-ao","title":{"rendered":"Volunteers shine at AO"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tennis Victoria\u2019s Volunteers\u2019 Breakfast<\/strong>, proudly supported by ANZ, proved a highlight on Day Four of the Australian Open.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hosted by Neroli Meadows<\/strong> and supported by Ian Cover<\/strong> roving in the crowd, more than 400 guests<\/strong> packed into the Melbourne Cricket Ground\u2019s Members Dining Room<\/strong> to pay tribute to the thousands of volunteers that make our sport special.<\/p>\n

Volunteering is a rewarding way to be part of a sport and tennis is fortunate enough to have many of them that put in hours and hours of work. The Tennis Victoria Volunteers\u2019 Breakfast is a small way of acknowledging the volunteers for their outstanding contribution.<\/p>\n

This year, two awards were presented to two incredible volunteers that go above and beyond for their club and community.<\/p>\n

Wendy Meers (metro)<\/strong> and Sarah Ellis (country)<\/strong> were presented with their awards and were completely shocked by the accolade.<\/p>\n

Meers\u2019 influence on the Murrumbeena Tennis Club<\/strong> has been extraordinary. From a club with dated facilities, she was able to engage the council, local MP and their own community to rally together.<\/p>\n

The Murrumbeena Tennis Club is now enjoying new lights on two of the courts and funds to update their pavilion. Meers has also shifted the culture in such a way that the membership has increased considerably, adding a significant atmosphere to the area.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m awestruck and proud,\u201d Meers said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel really happy that I picked up tennis as a fourteen-year-old, I\u2019ve been playing it ever since and now I\u2019m fifty-eight.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ellis was instrumental in providing the small town of Goroke<\/strong> a place to enjoy their tennis. Without lights to play after hours, she and the committee have still managed to record 58 members from a town population of 200.<\/p>\n

Her dedication to the tennis club is incredible. Receiving more than $100,000 in grants, the club can now look forward to lights on their courts and allow their members the opportunity to play tennis for even longer.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just very honoured and excited to receive such an award, it\u2019s really unexpected,\u201d Ellis said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love what I do and I do it because I enjoy it \u2013 this is just amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 400+ guests were treated to an entertaining morning full of fun, reflection and a healthy breakfast. Many were able to pose with the glistening Australian Open trophies<\/strong> (Norman Brookes Challenge Cup and Daphne Akhurst Memorial Cup)<\/strong>, take a photo in the photo booth and mingle with fellow members of the tennis community.<\/p>\n

The morning was also dominated by the riveting interview conducted by Meadows with former World No.1 doubles player and nine-time grand slam winner, Jonas Bjorkman<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Tennis Victoria\u2019s acting CEO Belinda Kleverlaan<\/strong> was thrilled to meet some of the amazing volunteers and hear their wonderful stories.<\/p>\n

\u201cVolunteers are truly the lifeblood of our sport,\u201d Kleverlaan said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel that recognising the amazing people in the room is just a small token of thanks for the countless hours they put in.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know there are many more that couldn\u2019t make it today but we want to acknowledge their contribution to tennis and their local community is much appreciated,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The volunteers were then invited to stay on and venture into the precinct for a day of watching tennis as another token of appreciation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tennis Victoria\u2019s Volunteers\u2019 Breakfast, proudly supported by ANZ, proved a highlight on Day Four of the Australian Open<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6038,"featured_media":19957,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6038"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19955"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19955\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}