a van for playing tennis

This project seeks the acquisition of a 9 place van that can support transportation of young tennis players of the Montemor-o-Novo Tennis Club.The objective is to create conditi...

This project seeks the acquisition of a 9 place van that can support transportation of young tennis players of the Montemor-o-Novo Tennis Club.

The objective is to create conditions that allow our young players to participate in regional, national and international tournaments, minimizing current transport costs due to the fact that the Club has no vehicle with such conditions. Currently, transport is ensured by parents, trainers and friends, obliging to use several vehicles at the same time and making it often impossible to achieve desirable logistic synergies, as well as signficantly increasing the financial burden on the athlete's families.

Appart from a wide ammount of users that benefit from tennis classes (over 800 persons, from the younger aged 3 or 4 to the elderly and also disabled people), the Club has a set of 88 young tennis players that compete regularly in several age-classes (under 18, under 16, under 14, under 12 and under 10). Under such intense activity, most weekends are generally filled with the participation of our young athletes in several competitions, spread thoughout several geogrpahical areas (as not always a single tournament includes the whole range of age-classes). The results from their efforts and enthousiasm is well seen on the results achieved, both at regional as national levels (we have the regional champions of the male classes under 18, under 16, and under 12, as well as the regional female champion under 12).

Equipa de Sub18

The fact that the Club has no transport vehicle, attending the tournaments is mostly achieved with the support of the athlete's families, who drive their own vehicles, leading to the rise of costs as most of the times 3 or 4 vehicles have to drive to similar places to satisfy  transport needs. The porject seeks therefore to buy a second hand van that satisfies safety requisites for this transport, at the same time that transport costs are reduced and the financial burden for competitions is lowered to more acceptable levels, while allowing the young players to grow and improve their tennis.

Complimentarily, if the projet is achieved, this will allow as well, during the week time, that the club coaches reach a set of other small localities within the municipality area, to which we are nowadays unable to offer our tennis classes due to the absence of transport.

About the author

The project promoters are the parents of the young players from the Montemor-o-Novo Tennis Club, in close articulation with the Club's Directing Board. 

The Montemor-o-Novo Tennis Club has been founded in 1986, being a private non-profit organisation that has been given "public usefullness" status. Within its work, it has promoted many synergies with other local and regional bodies and institutions in order to promote a wider access of tennis by several audiences; a special emphasis has been given in order to access publics with disabilities, the elderly, and, in a general way, to counteract the low presence of female players that is well known in the national context.

Since its creation, with the support of its members and local administrations, the Clube has grown in a sustainable way, delivering nowadays a set of facilities that include 4 tennis courts, 1 wall, 2 mini-courts and the needed support infrastructures (including a small gymn, coffee/bar, wc's and showers and administration rooms). Currently, the Club's investment priorities are directed to the construction of a cover for one of the courts, which will allow to increase its use under rainy or very hot conditions; therefore, the idea of raising this crwodfunding campaign as a way to achieve this complimentary goal, without compromising the Club's main investments.

From a social view point, the Club work is to be highlighted especially due to tight collaboration with local institutions that deal with the elderly and/or disabled, to whom gratis tennis lessons are offered on a regular basis, as a way to pormote the inclusion of such audiences.

On the competitive scenario, the historical and recent results from the Club's athletes are a clear evidence for priorities on the younger and on dismantling gender inequalities. In all, our athletes represent 39% of the ones from the Alentejo region, in Southern Portugal; however, they include 50% of the under 12 age-class and 57,5% of the under 10 age-class.

The Club has the regional champion on the age-class under 18 (Pedro Santos), the regional champion (Fábio Raposo) and vice-champion on under 16, the regional champion on under 12 (Diogo Lemos, also called to participate on the national team) and the female champion on under 12 (Ana Lemos, the younger player at her level on the national under 12 ranking).

To achieve these, the club has a dedicated Direction Board, coaches and the support of parents/families, without which attending the needed tournaments would not have been possible. As said, transport has been however a negative issue, creating problems and overriding the costs that would allow us to go further and probably higher with our young athletes.

Budget and due dates

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