Victoria Wilkinson was rewarded for her voluntary commitment to British tennis this weekend with a camp at the National Tennis Centre, aimed at Young Volunteers.
The 16-year-old from Loughborough was one of 23 young volunteers to be selected to attend the camp from October 2-4 in Roehampton.
During the course of the weekend Wilkinson undertook various activities to give her a further insight into how she can develop her skills as a volunteer and gain a deeper understanding of tennis.
Since completing her competition organiser’s course, Wilkinson has refined her skills by assisting at numerous tennis events across the area, and even with local school children, including regional competitions for the Talent Performance Coordinators to identify new talent and assess current players. She said;
“It’s been really good fun and I’ve learned lots of new things and met lots of new people. I wanted to increase my tournament knowledge and increase my ideas for when I go back to my club.
“I think the whole camp over the course of the weekend has achieved my aims and has taught me a lot. I’m glad I came.”
A number of different activities were held over the weekend, including listening to a talk on volunteering at the 2012 Olympics from the Head of Volunteering at the Games; a sports science talk; workshops relating to other careers within tennis; team building exercises; introducing more effective ways of communicating and encouraging more people to get involved.
And the National Volunteer and Club Development Manager, Sophie Curthoys acknowledged the importance all volunteers have to play in ensuring the continued success of British tennis.
“All sports benefit from the time and passion its volunteers dedicate to various facets of the programme and tennis is no different,” she said.
“This camp has been about not only rewarding each of the young volunteers who attended but also helping them develop new skills and opportunities which in turn will hopefully maximise their potential and their enjoyment.
“The 2012 Olympics will depend on 70,000 volunteers and I’ve no doubt that some of the attendees this weekend will make up those numbers, as they continue to support tennis over the next three years and beyond.”