President's Message - March 14, 2014
Last Saturday around 26 Alpharetta Rotarians along with some of our friends, spouses and children took part in the annual Alpharetta Rotary Special Pops’ tennis tournament. This event came out of a meeting Heather Demis had with one of the Special Pop’s Tennis board members and before you knew it the idea was sprung to host a tournament and raise some money. Right away Jack Hausmann and his daughter Kate jumped on board along with others and away it went with the event being hosted at Country Club of the South.
Special Pop’s Tennis is similar to ALTA tennis for adults with special needs. For those of us who played last year it was a great opportunity to see some old friends and for those that came out for the first time I can assure you they went home with a long list of new friends. We played a round- robin format with 23 special athletes who came with big smiles, big expectations and in some cases big “all in fun” smack talk. Some comments from my old friends went like this-
- Santino told me I better hope I don’t have to play him,
- Big Dave told me I won’t be able to return his “heat”
- one very nice young lady spent a great deal of time telling me what I was doing wrong, where I should stand and what I should practice (she wasn’t all wrong) .
All good stuff and all put big smiles on everyone’s face.
We had great food, great weather and great interaction with a group of people who constantly said “Thank you” for what we were doing. There was no grandstanding just good old fashioned tennis and fellowship with a bunch of people who share a similar passion in life. I can’t wait to play again next year. What a difference Rotary makes!
My friend Secretary of State Brian Kemp will be our guest speaker Friday so come and have breakfast with him. Brian is always open to questions, eager to help out wherever he can and just a pleasure to be around. I hope to see you all on Friday.
Yours in Rotary,
Dan Merkel
“We have enough youth, how about a fountain of smart”