PO‘IPU — Playing tennis and having fun raised $4,138 in contributions to the Kaua‘i United Way. The presentation was done by the committee organizing the Po‘ipu Kai Charity Tennis series, Friday, to Scott Giarman of the Kaua‘i United Way. “This
PO‘IPU — Playing tennis and having fun raised $4,138 in contributions to the Kaua‘i United Way.
The presentation was done by the committee organizing the Po‘ipu Kai Charity Tennis series, Friday, to Scott Giarman of the Kaua‘i United Way.
“This is $4,000 they never had before,” said Doug Sears, general manger of the Grand Hyatt Kaua‘i Resort and Spa.
Giarman agreed, pointing out that during these economic hard times, people turn to the agencies under the Kaua‘i United Way umbrella for more help and the funds presented by the Po‘ipu Kai Charity Tennis series are really appreciated.
“We’re really happy that everyone had a good time and we could help the Kaua‘i United Way,” said Herb Noe, who along with his wife Krystyna, spearheaded the tournament series. “It was really nice to see the tennis players that never usually come out, turn out to play.”
Carolyn Caylor, general manger of Po‘ipu Kai, was pleased with the overall results of both the tournament as well as with how much funds were generated to help the island’s people.
“We’ve already started planning for next year, and are trying to see if we can work one more tournament into the series,” Caylor said. “We at Po‘ipu Kai have put so much into the improvements of the court and are so happy to see that people are enjoying what we worked on.”
Caylor said she was thrilled to be part of the excitement of raising funds for a good cause.
“People came from all around the island to play,” Noe said. “That was probably the most exciting part because normally, you would never see a player from the West playing one from the East, or a young player playing against an older player.”
During the final tournament of the series, organizers were excited the tournament drew off-island players who came to Po‘ipu Kai to play in the tournament.
“We already have commitments from a family from Oregon that wants to be notified of next year’s tournament schedule so they can plan their trip here,” Noe said. “There were a lot of new friendships formed from this year’s tournament, and we’ve got some Kaua‘i players thinking of making a trip to Oregon — just to play tennis.”
Carolyn Lum of the Kaua‘i District Tennis Association said when the tournament was originally planned, it was going to be small with perhaps one agency benefiting. But as the tournaments took place, the committee opted to do the fundraising for the Kaua‘i United Way to cover more agencies that help the community.
Lum said one of the facets for the next series would be to try and accomodate more members of the public who could enjoy the matches even if they don’t play tennis.
