President’s Message

Dear HWTA Ladies,

We all joined HWTA for a reason and if you went around and asked everyone why they joined you would most likely get a variety of reasons. Who would agree that it’s like being on a journey that leads to happiness. Just look at all the exciting and wonderful events that have already taken place this year. The path to happiness and success is rarely a straight line and over the past 50 years just look at how many events are held each year and how many different HWTA members have served as board officers or chair leads, or volunteers. This journey doesn’t involve visiting far away places, but is right here. So, think where you want your road to lead you and stay active with HWTA. The road is calling and hopefully your path will be mapped to the journey of happiness.

Are you ready to give back? The HWTA Fall Charity Tennis Tournament will be held in October and this is a great opportunity for you to give back to your community. HWTA has a reputation for taking care of each other and giving back. You can give back in many ways during this Fall Charity Tournament. How about playing in the tournament, maybe donate something to the gently used tennis clothing sale, support the court banner program, donate something for the raffle, donate something for the Meals on Wheels, or simply sign up to volunteer to help where needed.

The more the happier! Everyone is invited to our next event on September 13, 2017. There’s nothing better than a HWTA salad bar lunch! The guest speaker with be Jeanie Glynn from Meals on Wheels. So, you are marking your calendar to attend the HWTA General Membership Meeting – right? Can you spare one hour to learn more about giving back? Please plan to attend and it would be greatly appreciated if you can also help supply a topping for the salad buffet.

It’s your chance to do something awesome so start thinking about who you would nominate for the 2017 Sportsmanship Award and Most Improved Player Award. Cindy Reaves will be looking for your nominations soon.

Tennis memories that will never be forgotten were played on August12, 2017 at our HWTA 50th Anniversary Tennis Party at ACA. The event started with the Ladies exhibition match, which wasn’t being played to claim victory it was about these ladies being part of something special and allowing us the opportunity to share that moment. Women’s tennis in our community continues to grow and these ladies played a vital role in getting HWTA started 50 years ago. Next on the courts we got to watch a pro set where two of our local Juniors chal-lenged the Pros. All four players played with grit and guts and you could feel the electricity being created. This match was all about the pleasure of effort these doubles partners shared, but for us fans it was all about the cheering, as we watched amazing shots taking place. Karen Mitchell, Sue Chatham, and Linda Baumbach set this all up and ACA provided us with our dinner and dessert! Wow, The perfect trifecta – tennis, food, memories!!

Kim McCandless President, HWTA

HWTA Newsletter September 2017

2017 HWTA Calendar

September 13 General Membership Mee ng, 11:00 a.m.

September 13 Wednesday League Starts

October 12 ‐ 15 HWTA Fall Tournament ‐ details coming soon

December 5 Holiday Luncheon ‐ details coming soon

HWTA General Membership Mee ng

September 13, 2017

Social Time 11 – 11:30

Salad Bar Lunch 11:30

HTC Upstairs Meeting Room

Everyone is invited. Jeanie Glynn, from Meals on Wheels, will be our guest speaker. The nominating committee will submit their slate of HWTA 2018 Officers. This will be the time for you to voice your opinion and vote.

There are two actions for you:

1. Email, text or phone Kim McCandless to let me know you're coming

Kimmccandless@knology.net 256-651-2328 Cell

2. Can you help provide something for the Salad Bar? If so, please let Kim know what you will bring. Kim will consolidate the replies and make a master list to make sure every-thing is covered.

HWTA 2018 Officers Nominees

President — Christy Russell

1st Vice President — Kristy Palmer

2nd Vice President — Tracey Bailey

3rd Vice President — Ann Creager

Secretary — Trudy Spearman

Treasurer — Terri Good

Membership — Kim McCandless

Submi ed by the nomina ng commi ee — Rachelle Eccher, Ber e Frosch, Sue Gibson and Viv‐

ian Pannell .

Be sure and a end the General Membership Mee ng on September 13 at 11 am and Vote !

Last year HWTA tried a new fund‐raising idea where Banner adver sing was created, so that everyone coming to HTC during our HWTA Tennis tournament weekends would see who proudly supports HWTA by adver sing their business, hobby, or anything special they want to promote. To keep this idea growing HWTA needs your help. Cur‐rently several have stepped up to support HWTA's Banner and we thank Brenda Armstrong ‐ Edward Jones, Pat Clow‐ers ‐ Topspin, Athena Li le ‐ Equilibria Therapeu c Massage, and Mellow Mushroom.

Who's interested in buying a HWTA Banner? Who knows someone they can ask to buy a Banner? It's simple to get a banner adver sed and it won't cost a fortune. Banners are available in various sizes and price is determined on whether you supply a banner or HWTA will get your design made especially for you. Price range is affordable, $100.00 to $200.00, and just think about the benefits.

Who's ready to buy a Banner or help by ge ng a friend or business contact you know to buy a Banner so that they will be displayed during the HWTA Fall tournament in October along with the four others men oned above who are already HWTA supporters.

Point of contact for Banners is Babs Bruce, so if anyone knows of someone who might be interested, contact Babs by phone c‐256‐603‐8634 or email babs81150@yahoo.com.

Babs Bruce, HWTA, 2nd VP

HWTA Banners That Won’t Cost A Fortune!

“Gently Used” Clothing Sale

During the Fall Tournament October 12th— 15th

All of our HWTA ladies have such a giving heart and sharing spirit. We will be having our an‐nual "Gently Used" clothing sale during our Fall tournament again. The tournament is October 12th ‐ 15th. This is a great fundraiser for HWTA so look in your closet and pull out all those gorgeous tennis ou its, bags and shoes that you no longer use and donate them to the sale!!! There will be a plas c tote UPSTAIRS at the Tennis Center for you to place your items in. Informa on will come closer to the sale date for volunteers to help with the sale. Thanks in advance for contribu ng to this fun event.

Ann Creager, HWTA, 3rd VP

Annual HWTA Awards: Sportsmanship and Most Improved Player

I'll Be Watching You!

I'm thinking of some ladies who are so pleasant to be with on the court ‐ winning or losing. They enjoy their sport and their tennis friends and it shows!

And have you no ced how much ________________'s game has improved? I have! Wow! She's really worked hard this year, and it's paid off.

So please remember that it will soon be me to nominate players for our annual HWTA awards: Sportsmanship and Most Improved Player. Nomina ons will begin October 1 and end October 20. One nomina on for each award will be accepted from each HWTA member. Nominees must be HWTA members. Winners will be announced at the Christmas banquet.

Send your nomina ons to creaves256@gmail.com.

Cindy Reaves, Awards Chairperson

Ladies, summer is over and cooler weather is right around the corner. What does that mean? Wednesday Round Robin will be star ng back and we'll have awesome weather!!!! This session will begin September 13th at 9:00 and go 8 weeks ending on November 1st. We have 8 courts which gives us 32 spots. If you would like to sign up for the fun, email me at hwtadayleague@yahoo.com. If you can't play every week, consider a shared spot or being a sub. We have a wonderful group of ladies and always tons of fun!!! We're going to have some "special" events during round robin this season so hurry and sign up so you don't miss out!!!!

Ann Creager, HWTA, 3rd VP

Fall Wednesday League—September 13 thru November 1

Summer Wednesday League

Pictures by Kim McCandless

A Rainbow of Colors!

Matching Blues!

Meals

On

Wheels

HWTA Fall Tournament October 12—15.

Save the Date! Watch your email for the entry form!

Meals on Wheels—HWTA Charity for 2017

Wow! HWTA really comes through! These are the filled bags from the items that you donated at the spring tournament. Besides the bags on the table and chair, there are 25 more in the corner under the window – 250 in all! Each small bag had the label as shown; the filled larger bags were handed to the route drivers to distribute to the Meals on Wheels clients.

We want to repeat at the fall tournament. The li le red wagons will be ready and wai ng!

Meals on Wheels Wish List

Band‐aids Hotel size shampoo Neosporin Hotel size soap Nail clippers Hotel size lo on Small bo le hand sani zer Refrigerator magnets Pocket Kleenex packs Toothbrushes Birthday, get well, etc. cards Toothpaste Stamps Dental floss Note pads Dental picks Pencils/pens Lip Balm

Send us your Bragging Rights

1. Team Name

2. USTA League and Year (example ‐ 2016 fall combo 40+)

3. List of Team Member Names

4. Photo ( if available)

The bragging right submi als will be posted to the hwtanews.com website, HWTA Facebook page, and will be

in future HWTA newsle ers when possible. HWTA needs to catch up on a few years where HWTA tennis sisters have

earned bragging rights for "Winning On The Courts"!

HWTA ladies are not just Champion Members they are also Champions on the Courts. So jump on this oppor‐

tunity to help HWTA showcase our Champions and submit your bragging rights today!

Mary Moseley, HWTA Website Lead

HWTA would love to brag about our members being USTA local league champions and especially those win‐

ning at state, sec onals and na onals for the last five years (covering years 2012 to present date). All leagues can be

submi ed ‐ ladies doubles, combo, tri level and mixed. If you want to be included in the HWTA bragging rights

email the following informa on to: HWTAcontact@gmail.com

Raffle Dona ons Needed for the Fall Tournament

If you would like to donate an item, a gi basket or a gi cer ficate for the big HWTA Raffle to be held during the HWTA Fall Tournament please contact me at babs81150@yahoo.com or text me at 256‐603‐8634. All proceeds from the raffle go toward our charity for the

year—Meals on Wheels. Thanks for any help you can provide.

Babs Bruce, HWTA, 2nd VP

HWTA needs an official photographer for 2018

Do you like seeing pictures from HWTA events throughout the year? Do you

like having some of them included in the newsle ers and the yearly handbook? To

con nue to have pictures for 2018, HWTA needs someone who enjoys taking pictures and sharing them

with others to volunteer to be the official photographer next year. If you are interested or know someone

who might be interested please contact Kim McCandless at kimmccandless@knology.net.

Please pick up your 2017 Directory at HTC on the

table in the lobby!

HWTA 50th Anniversary Party at ACA

What an awesome event! Perfect weather, great hamburgers and hot dogs, approximately 120 ckets sold, so a huge crowd for the two exhibi on matches! This was HWTA at its finest! The ladies exhibi on match was declared a draw and was followed by Joc Simmons and Eddie Jacques playing against the two juniors, Alee Clayton and Parrish Simmons. It was a fabulous match to watch, with all four players making unbelieva‐ble shots. In the end, experience told, as Joc and Eddie won the match.

There are so many people to thank when having an event like this one: Be y Choate, Caffey Litkenhous, Doris McHugh and Do e Robinson gave their all and then some in their match. And Alee Clayton, Parrish Sim‐mons, Eddie Jacques and Joc Simmons proved to be as entertaining as any pro match; maybe more so with all of the trash talk!

We owe special thanks, too, to Jeff and Jerrie Burns, super chair umpires and to HWTA president, Kim McCandless, for handling the emcee du es with her usual aplomb.

When you have events such as this one, you learn that people in this community are very generous. We thank Mellow Mushroom, TopSpin Tennis, Luciano’s (courtesy of Ben and Sally Walker), and especially Ath‐le c Club Alabama (ACA) for their generosity. ACA was the perfect venue for the party, provided great food and everyone at ACA was a joy to work with – they always said “yes” to our requests.

And finally, thank you to those members and guests who a ended. We had a blast – and we hope that you did, too!

Linda, Karen & Sue

HWTA 50th Anniversary Party

Pictures by Lynne Abernathy

Dear Kim,

On Saturday the 17th of June you held a summer social with the tennis playing

me from 10 to 12. It was a great idea. I personally thank you and your board

for having it. I had a great me. It was run smoothly and your volunteers were

excellent and helpful, giving us a nice lunch and surprise give away presents. I

thank each and every one involved. You have a great team of helpers. Thank

you again. Looking forward to the next one.

Anita Larose

Kudos to HWTA Members

From Spring Tournament

From Summer Social

HWTA Membership Form 2017