Celebrating Kerry Radigan
The Ancaster Tennis Club has been transformed in the past 15 years. That takes teamwork and commitment from many individuals, but Kerry Radigan has been at the heart of it. The club showed its appreciation on June 8th, when over 115 members showed up for the club’s AGM – the final one of Kerry’s tenure as club president.
Kerry joined the board in 2011 in the marketing and publicity portfolio. It was a project-intensive time. Over the next several years, the club expanded from three courts to five, built a new clubhouse and extensive outdoor deck area, and planned for installation of a bubble in order to provide year-round tennis for the community. Kerry became president in 2020. The pandemic was in high gear and the bubble project was laden with complexity and complications.
The past four years have seen all challenges conquered. With support from the Rogers Year-round Tennis program, and a no-interest loan from the City of Hamilton, the dome was completed in 2022 and two full years of operations are in the books. Annual repayments to the city (in excess of $60,000 per year) are being made and there are sufficient reserves to undertake a resurfacing of the courts this fall. Even the elusive insurance for the dome has been secured.
The pandemic brought about the need for an updated website and online booking systems, all of which were hands-on for Kerry. She immersed herself in every aspect of operations, with abundant opportunity to practice her crisis management skills. Mustapha Jamal is the club’s Director of Operations and Head Professional : “In my experience, I haven’t seen any other volunteer do more for a club than Kerry.” She is certainly a most worthy recipient of the Bruce Childs Award, a gift from the OTA presented to Kerry as the meeting’s finale.
Kerry is staying on the board as Past President, supporting new president (and former treasurer), Andrew Zucker. She’s committed to completing the final steps of the bylaw overhaul and ONCA compliance process. She’s impressed with the new board members elected on Saturday. “They’re younger members, with careers in business and the professions. Lots of energy, enthusiasm and know-how.”
We’re blessed in SouthWest Region to have so many of our clubs led by women with extensive business backgrounds. Kerry had a 35-year career as a hospital specialist with Sanofi Pharmaceuticals. Others include Linda Anderson (Welland TC), Marylynn Schoolee (Pelham TA), Marilyn Francis (Niagara-on-the-Lake TC), Christina Wilson (Burlington TC), Helga Cuddy (North Burlington TC), Marianne Verhaeghe (Carlisle TC), Debra Sylvester and Jennifer Godyn (Dundas TC), Susan Kitamura (Milton TC), Nancy Gilbert (Nassagaweya TC), Diana Bayes (Appleby TC) and Christine DeGennero (Wallace Park TC). They’re a very impressive group of leaders, devoting endless hours and bringing a lifetime of experience and expertise to the task of maintaining and expanding our community tennis clubs.
In this very special year of celebrations for Team Canada’s BJK Cup victory and the US Open title won by Gabriela Dabrowski and Erin Routliffe, along with the WTA Tour being in Toronto in August, let’s pause and say a word of gratitude for the exceptional contributions of women.
