Aidan Curtis
A TENNIS club stalwart received state-wide recognition for her contributions to the sport after winning a volunteering award in Adelaide.
Mount Gambier Tennis Club secretary Heidi Heemskerk was named winner of the Tennis SA Volunteer Achievement Award – Rural at a gala dinner on April 29.
Ms Heemskerk said there were around 430 people at the dinner with some big names in the tennis world, so she was pretty nervous going in.
She said she was very surprised to hear her name called when they were announcing the winner.
“It was lovely to be nominated, and then amazing to be a finalist,” she said.
“I don’t know much about the other two finalists, but obviously they’ve been doing amazing things for their clubs to be nominated.
“To actually win that award, I was over the moon.”
Despite the initial nerves, Ms Heemskerk said getting to the award ceremony was a great experience.
“By the end of the night, so many people I didn’t know came up and congratulated me, which was so lovely,” she said.
“It was good to meet lots of new people at the event.”
Ms Heemskerk said volunteering is an important part of her life and encouraged more people to put up their hand and help out in the community.
“Clubs like us can’t run without volunteers and we’re really lucky we’ve got a great group of volunteers at the club at the moment,” she said.
“Kids can’t get on the court unless you’ve got volunteers to run training sessions and organising teams.
“There’s so many things in clubs or organisations that need doing, any little thing can help out.”
Along with being the club secretary, Ms Heemskerk is also one of the junior coordinators, runs hot shots sessions, and helps out at the club however she can.
