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The GOBs’ 40th Anniversary Season is in full-swing! We’re now about 60% through our season’s play dates but would like to provide an update on a few anniversary-related activities.
Partner Recognition
We’ve had very productive interactions with each of our partner Club’s GM and Pro in which we presented them with recognition gifts. Each club has voiced their appreciation for the recognition and some have even gone the extra step and profiled the GOBs anniversary milestone along with a photo of the presentation in their newsletter. In short, the reactions of the GMs and the Pros have been quite positive.
Publicity and Promotion
The GOBs has been featured in the July issue of the Greenwich Magazine and in the July/August issue of the DarienMagazinect. The Greenwich Magazine can be purchased at stores that sell magazines, like CVS. DarienMagazinect is mailed to the home of each Darien resident and should be received within the next few days. We will create electronic links to both articles for our members. Both articles are must-reads for GOBs members!
Expansion of our Strategic Plan
Our next planned anniversary celebration event is one that is linked to a new strategic direction for the GOBs. Our historical focus has been primarily internal-facing, with modest and passive charitable support, and enjoying tennis and each other’s camaraderie. To complement our internal-focus, the Executive Committee has agreed to append an external focus to our group’s strategic plan. Such a focus will have a civic-minded spirit.
We realize that many of our GOBs members have made tangible differences in their communities. Our aim with this expanded focus is to harness the collective desire of giving-back from our GOBs members and more directly support organizations whose mission shares our passion for the sport of tennis.
GOBs Civic-Minded Event
We are kicking-off this new element of our strategic direction in 2023, in concert with our 40th anniversary season, with Norwalk/Stamford Grassroots Tennis & Education. Grassroots is a youth development nonprofit organization, and as indicated on their website, uses the sport of tennis to engage in holistic out-of-school time programming. The organization was founded by a GOBs member, Art Goldblatt, who passed away on October 2, 2021. Both Roy Anderson and John Schmidt currently serve on the Grassroots Advisory Board.
The GOBs will co-host the inaugural Arthur J. Goldblatt Tennis Tournament at the Tokeneke Club on Thursday, August 17th from 9AM-12PM with a continental breakfast and buffet lunch. The Tournament will, hopefully, allow some of the youth from Grassroots to further develop their life skills by teaming-up with a GOBs member and potentially form a memory which could influence the future direction of a participant.
GOBs Representation in Event
The 12 GOBs members who will represent our organization in the Tournament are as follows:
Roy Anderson (TOK)
Jay Bennett (TOK)
Vic Benoit (WWY)
Robin Hogen (S&C)
Reid Campbell (WWY)
Bas Hartong (MBK)
Jim McGuire (MBK)
Bill Ross (MSX)
Rob Steeves (MSX)
Ed Tunick (S&C)
John Schmidt (WWY)
Jim Tweedy (TOK)
Attendance at Event
We encourage everyone to come and view the Tournament, and support this new strategic direction and interact with the youth over breakfast and/or lunch. Admission is free. The cost of food and beverage is $30, which can be charged to your Club’s membership number. To accommodate the Tournament, the play date scheduled at Tokeneke on August 17th is CANCELED.
Donating to Grassroots
For those GOBs members so inclined to donate directly to Grassroots, please indicate your association with the GOBs. The aggregate donation of the GOBs members will be announced at the Tournament along with gifts provided by other sponsors of the event (e.g., Gut Reaction and True Tension). There are two ways to donate to Grassroots:
Electronic Donation: Go to http://www.grassrootste.org/donate. You can complete the donation form and make sure you indicate that you are associated with GOBs.
Mail-in Donation: You can send a donation payable to Grassroots to:
Grassroots Tennis & Education
c/o Samantha Hayes
11 Ingalls Ave
Norwalk, CT 06854
Again, please, indicate that you are a member of the GOBs. If you plan to make a donation by mail, please try to have it postmarked by this coming Thursday, August 10th.
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Thank you in advance for your getting behind this strategic priority, which for 2023, we have decided to partner with the Grassroots Tennis & Education organization.
I hope to see you at the Tournament on August 17th. And, if you do come to observe, proudly wear your GOBs apparel!
Best,
Jim