Hello Kentucky Tennis Family!
This month I am incredibly excited to share with you about the upcoming “Kentucky Tennis Tour!” This is a huge opportunity and we are looking forward to giving tennis the limelight across Kentucky from June 2-9.
Hopefully, if we’ve done our job well, this isn’t the first time you’ve heard something about the Kentucky Tennis Tour! But in case you’ve missed this big news, last August the Governor, at the request of USTA Kentucky, declared June 2-9 Tennis Awareness Week in Kentucky.
As I write this on Tuesday morning, we are gearing up for a kick-off event at the Capitol this afternoon where local players and students will converge at the Capitol building to play tennis on the veranda. We are looking forward to sharing our sport with the kids of Frankfort’s Second Street School as well as having local adult and high school players come out and play and celebrate all the benefits that tennis has to offer. This event will serve as the statewide announcement and launch of the Kentucky Tennis Tour which officially begins on Saturday, June 2nd in Paducah and concludes on Saturday, June 9th in Ashland.
During that week, local Community Tennis Associations will be offering various activities and events to highlight local programs, players, and providers and share with their communities all the opportunities they have locally to get involved in tennis. There is some exciting stuff happening over the course of that week and we hope that you’ll plan to attend the festivities in your area!
Click HERE for a complete schedule of Kentucky Tennis Tour events! The Kentucky Tennis Tour is fortunate to be sponsored by Commonwealth Pain Specialists in Frankfort Kentucky.
During that week, USTA Kentucky staff will be visiting each site to participate in and show support for our community tennis providers around the state. That’s 17 cities in 8 days! #TeamNoSleep is game on beginning June 2 and can’t wait to see you on the courts!
There’s never been a better time to get out and support you support your local Community Tennis Association than Tennis Awareness Week in Kentucky! CTA’s are volunteer based organizations that make tennis available to you, your family and your community on the grassroots level and they need you! CTA’s make tennis possible in every corner of our state and they need your time, talent, perspective, and energy to make tennis in your area the best it can be! I urge you to reach out to your CTA and see how you can help!
Lastly, the Kentucky Tennis Tour would not be happening without an amazing team. In addition to our rock-star CTA’s and their leadership in putting together some awesome activities in their communities, I want to give a shout-out to the Kentucky Tennis Tour organizing committee, Terry Bunnell, Jane Gamble, Mike Eden, Karen Lingreen and Jason Miller. Your collective vision for this event was a big one and you all have worked incredibly hard to make it happen – I hope you each have the opportunity to enjoy the week and celebrate as thousands around the state take part in the sport we love as a result of your vision.
And on a final note, Kim Lonnemann, USTA Kentucky’s Marketing & Promotions Coordinator is the glue that has held all of this together. She’s been the point person on this project keeping us all organized, on task, and on time. Thank you, Kim, for being so committed to making the Kentucky Tennis Tour a success and for doing all the behind the scenes stuff that often goes unrecognized. Kudos on a job well done!
That’s all for now! We hope to see you on tour June 2-9!
Keep on Servin’!
Rainey Johns