Families from across the area came along to a family fun day run by Useful Vision.
The event was run in conjunction with the LTA / Tennis Foundation, Newcastle City Council and Goalball UK and saw volunteers from Useful Vision, The Northumberland Club (TNC), along with North East Visually Impaired Tennis Club (NEVITC) and Tony Blair Sports Foundation (TBSF). It was the first event where tennis has been involved and the atmosphere, fun and enjoyment was magical. At the same time there was Goalball and fitness based sessions for the families to have a go at.
Jo Cunliffe, from the LTA along with coaches / volunteers from the NEVITC, TNC and TBSF ran a number of fun activities. This included the tennis factory, skills court and tennis coaching, which all of the participants thoroughly enjoyed. It was great to see Mums and Dads getting involved and we even had our youngest participant on the tennis factory who was just 2 years old!
As we know tennis is a completely inclusive sport and disabled people can take part in any tennis activity either in its full format or adapted. The Useful Vision event proved this and what tennis can offer as a sport and social activity.
Special thanks must go to all the volunteers on the day; Wendy, Steve, Rosie, Graeme, Max, Steven, Billy, Christy, Stuart, Emily and Nick. We simply cannot run events of this scale without their support and they were fantastic throughout the event and even joined in playing Goalball at the end.
Jo (Tennis Development Manager) couldn’t hide her delight at how the event went,
"Fun events like the Useful Vision day are a great way to engage the whole family and it was fantastic to see everyone from 2 – 42+ get involved in the activities. Some of the youngsters are going to have a go at the North East Visually Impaired Tennis Club sessions that run in Newcastle, Sunderland and Middlesbrough, which is amazing and we wish them the very best in further developing their tennis. I would like to say a huge thank you to Useful Vision and we are definitely going to run more events like this in the future!”
To find out more about Useful Vision please go to their website. To find out more about the North East Visually Impaired Tennis Club please go to their facebook page.