Prepared By: Jacinthe (Jessie) Laberge, Social Director
Overall, I had a great 2013 season year as Social Director. I would like to thank all Kew members who came out and supported our social events, as well as my fellow Board members who made me feel welcome and helped me in making our events a great success. I survived my first year only because I was handed the most comprehensive files a new Social Director could dream of. Had it not been for the crucial information that my predecessor Ev McLean gathered during her 5 years as Social Director, I would not have known where to start – her detailed notes and recommendations were extremely useful to me and my most precious asset. Thank you Ev for your thoroughness and great attention to details.
I would also like to thank long-time member and former club manager, Dorothy Hunt, who was hired this year to help with our Wednesday night Socials. Passionate about tennis, Dorothy made sure everyone had an enjoyable experience and round-robins, and introduced Theme Nights, including Italian Night, Latin Night and Ontario Wines, which were really well received and a tremendous success. She also arranged for a few cardio clinics led by one of our new pros Ira Sherman, and for a Wilson racquet demo. We had great turnouts for our Wednesday & Saturday night Socials. I heard so many positive comments on how organized and well run the socials were this year – thanks to both Dorothy and Linda Elliot for their excellent work in running the Wednesday night socials. I hope that these innovative ideas will be maintained next year.
A big thank you to the following people who contributed in making our Social Events a great success:
our Head Pro Bobby Mahal who, along with Assistant Pro Rachel Gould, Ira Sherman and Nick Somody, came out several Wednesday nights at the beginning of the season and assessed every new or regular member interested in knowing their rating
to our Club Manager Neil McKechnie, who helped me in many ways, and our clubhouse staff – Linda, Amy,
Jordan, Joseph, Sofia, Veronica and Matt - who did their absolute best to keep members happy and safe on court.
Thanks to all!
Recap of events:
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Even though it was rained out on the initial planned date and had to be re-scheduled, our Opening Day Round
Robin & BBQ was a huge success! Again, thanks to Wayne who stayed at the BBQ for 3 hours straight and to the other fellow Board members who came out to help, and thanks to our pros who organized fun challenging games for the event!
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Our Kew vs. Kew events and our Welcome to summer BBQ were not as well attended this year, however, in this case, the weather is to blame as it was very cold and chilly every time.
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Our very popular French Open, Family-Canada Day and Wimbledon events were a tremendous success again this year. Thank you to all members who participated in these events and to our pros for again organizing really fun games – everyone had a lot of fun and played a lot of tennis!
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Once again this year, Pete Eastmure and the Welldigger Band were asked to perform at Kew, although this time, due to a conflict in schedule, the event did not coincide with the beach Jazz Festival which, in retrospect, may have been factor in the not so well attended night. However, the small number of people who came certainly enjoyed their music, and danced most of the evening!
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Our Year-End Party was held at the clubhouse this year with DJ Trevor White. Despite the rain and cool weather, the party was very much a success and it looked to me like the 50-60 people who came out that night had a great time! Personally, I cannot remember the last time I danced that much. Next year, I will make sure we have firewood!