11/02/2025
Hello Fine Members:
Just a quick note, on behalf of the executive board, to recap our 2025 season at MBTC.
And what a season it was! The weather this year was routinely fantastic. Virtually every event ran without the threat of rain, and league and recreational play truly benefited from the high and dry summer.
We were proud to finish our new social patio, and get a little shade in place for those dog days mid season. It was great to see the "Girls on the Court" tournament take advantage of this new amenity. A big thanks to Mary Paula MacEachern, who took over the reins of program co-ordinator, and continued to build this exciting opportunity for girls and all juniors, through our expanding lesson program, in our community!
Thank you as well to Kathy MacEachern, our new communications co-ordinator, for her all her work with important messaging and coordination with the ATC as we piloted an affiliation with them. Just recently, by mutual agreement, this relationship has ended. Please note that next year we will be accepting memberships at our local site, https://clubspark.ca/MahoneBayTennisClub, as we had done in the previous 3 seasons.
**A reminder to all for next year to simply renew your membership from our own website. No need to register again. Just sign in!
Thanks to our intrepid treasurer, Carmel Zinck, for continued diligence in keeping us in the black, and to Jim Shatford for grant writing duties. Both Jim and partner Kathy Armstrong, who worked with Mary Paula and myself on operations, spent numerous hours on grounds duty with yours truly, finishing the patio, filling cracks in the court, curtailing the wild blueberry encroachment, and countless other small details that keep the grounds up and running.
If I have one regret it's that we've yet to get our new LED lights up and running, but I'm confident the town's hired contractor, who has promised to help us, will manage to get the job done before the snow flies. It is our express hope that exceptional new lighting will encourage the working age moms and dads of our junior players to come out in the evenings, and we do plan to hold some events in the new year for this purpose.
Next year? Continued league play, a growing junior program, new rec formats to encourage more players, perhaps a singles tournament or two, given the success of the one held in Bridgewater (yours truly lost in the semi-final to junior phenom and new part time MBTC instructor Tiger Norton!), and a little night play, including the South Shore League.
As always, we're very much looking for new volunteers. You don't need to devote endless hours or consecutive weeks to help us! A morning or afternoon, once in a blue moon, goes a long way to making everyone's job a little easier! We are meeting over the winter with Annette St. Onge, long time member and accounting consultant for us, and the person who spearheaded the last court resurfacing in 2015. Thank you to Annette for volunteering to lead the committee to fundraise going forward for this important capital project, which will need to be completed in the years to come.
Lastly, we have no plans to raise fees, a rarity in the modern world. Tennis memberships and our associate program remain the best fitness bargains in 2026! Please do encourage people you know to join the club. It's proven that playing tennis helps people live longer and better!
It was an honour to be your president this year, and I look forward to great things for our little club in the very near future! Have a safe and happy off season, and we'll see you in April when we open again.
MJM
Mahone Bay Tennis Club Mahone Bay NS
