News

After all of our other events, camps and mixers we’ve put on over the years, we were so honored to have the first ever Marcia Anderson Tennis Festival become such a success. The outpouring of support from the community was unparalleled for us, raising over $10,000 dollars for the Belgrade Tennis Association with over 40 participants in our day-long festivities. Further, I will also venture a claim: this was the first tennis playing event in the last 15 years to have a waiting list. As we say on the court, “Let’s go!!!”

A quick note before I proceed: we had not anticipated this sort of turnout or support. Thank you for your patience as we learned some lessons and grew quickly over the past few months.

And keep on scrolling to see some photos from the event below.

What are you going to do with the proceeds?

Let’s not beat around the bush and get right to it, shall we? Our mission statement reads as follows, which you can find right on the homepage of our website:

Provide facilities and opportunities for the Belgrade community
to learn, play and enjoy the lifelong sport of tennis.

Belgrade Tennis Association Mission Statement

With the mission statement in our mind, here are our plans for the proceeds.

#1 Wind screens

To this end we will be, with the approval of the Belgrade school board, be obtaining new wind screens for the courts, as the current set has not been replaced or repaired since the courts’ inception 8 years ago. We are currently discussing further sponsorship for these, in which case we will keep some money in the coffers for other upcoming programs.

#2 Continue to maintain the courts

Alongside the Belgrade School District, we will continue to maintain the high level these tennis courts provide. The school has committed to a multi-year schedule of cleaning the courts each year, but we will be able to assist if any other maintenance issues arise.

#3 What’s next?

We have some ideas for the other programs we can provide, including:

• Marcia Mixers: fun tennis get-togethers at the Belgrade courts
• Middle school tennis club for Fall 2023
• Setting money aside for the resurfacing of the courts about 4-6 years away

What do you think of these ideas? If you wish to comment or have other ideas to share, get in touch with us and let us know what you think.

Thank you, 2022 sponsors!

We have a long list of sponsors to thank for the success of this event.

Super Sponsors

Generous Gifters

Your generosity will help the Belgrade Tennis Association continue to provide kids and adults a safe and fun place to play tennis!

Thank you, volunteers!

We simply could not have done this without you.

Our three college players who put us all through our paces: Jamieson, Marty and Bradley.

Our three tennis pros who ran the fun games in the afternoon including Dave Luebbe, Linda Stancil and Cheryl Litle. Thank you for your support and growth of the game in our community.

Thijs Goossens, MSU Assistant Athletic Director who donated his time and the tennis facility so we could get out of the rain.

Sharon Cleland who worked behind the scenes to connect so many dots to elevate the Festival.

And the Belgrade Police who we nearly got to clock our serves, and are excited to join us next time.

Personal gratitude

We had some amazing, energetic people step up to help with this festival and without them it would never have turned into the event we experienced. I would like to personally thank Theresa Wise for her tireless work, organization, knowledge and support of the festival as her efforts allowed us to move to a smaller, indoor venue and still pull off an amazing event. Dorothy Filson, Caroline Gentry and their sponsorship committee used skill and hard work to pull together amazing donations, prizes and auction items that exponentially raised the level of our event. Not to mention, they performed many other coordination jobs and took those on with a smile. And, one more moment of gratitude to my Co-President Jane Wagner who continues to work hard pulling our financials together for a much, much larger event than we were expecting.

Lastly, I want to thank you, whomever you might be, reading this note. Your support of the Belgrade Tennis Association, no matter if you’re just reading this or you’ve donated thousands, means the world to myself and the rest of us at the Association. We are passionate about the life-changing power of tennis, and our mission to continue to offer and build the tennis community in Belgrade. We are honored to have your support.

Photos from the Tennis Festival