Chatham-Kent will see $200,000 added to funds raised for planned year-round tennis courts.
The money comes from Tennis Canada's and Rogers' Year-Round Community Tennis Courts Program. Six municipalities were chosen to split a $1.2 million investment to develop covered tennis courts.
"This funding helps bring a tennis dome to our growing community and will provide another great venue for Chatham-Kent residents to have fun, learn new skills, and live more healthy and active lifestyles," said mayor Darrin Canniff.
Mark Chapados, a local teacher and part-time tennis coach, said that seeing the domed tennis courts, which will be part of a 20-acre park on Bear Line Road and McNaughton Avenue, start to take shape has been in the works for a long time.
"We started [fundraising] four or five years ago," he said of himself and his wife Stephanie. "Seeing the announcement today was just like 'wow'! We're out there now," he added.
At first, the Chapados duo did a lot of fundraising on their own.
"We ran some camps that were successful. We got good support there. It was really when Tennis Clubs of Canada came on board that we got over the top," Mark said. "It's a nice partnership that we've got between Tennis Clubs of Canada, Rogers, Tennis Canada, and our municipality."
The Year-Round Community Tennis Courts Program is in it's third year and has already made a substantial impact across the country. Tennis Canada said that previously finished projects have provided 4.1 million Canadians access to year-round tennis. Adding that each of those clubs saw its winter court bookings and membership enrollment increase dramatically for the new indoor seasons.
"Tennis is a sport that's growing nationally, especially for youth... It's a very healthy sport, very active, and it's a safe sport," Chapados explained as reasons that it's important to see more access to tennis in the community. Currently, anyone looking for time on the courts in the winter months has to drive at least an hour away, to London or to Windsor.
"We have five high school tennis teams [in Chatham-Kent]," he said. "They've got to compete with teams that have access all year round," he added.
Ground is expected to break on the domed, year-round courts, including two that are lined to play pickleball, next month.
"We've already had contact with lots of community groups that want to have sessions, and team building activities," Chapados said. "We'd really like to see it be a community asset that everyone can get behind."
Anyone interested in booking spring and summer lessons or team building activities can call 289-879-4600 or go through the website tennisclubs.ca.
