Lea Bergman is a junior tennis player from Laramie and she has won BIG! Lea's submittal into the Arthur Ashe Essay Contest (AAEC) won the Girl’s 15-16 age division in the nationwide competition. Lea is a member of the new UWYO National Junior Tennis and Learning (NJTL) Chapter. Participants in any NJTL Chapter can submit an essay and Lea was the very first person ever to submit an essay to the AAEC from Wyoming – and she won!
You must answer a question about Arthur Ashe – here was this years. Arthur Ashe once said: “I don't want to be remembered for my tennis accomplishments. That's no contribution to society. That [tennis] was purely selfish; that was for me.” Arthur Ashe used his time and skills to impact others - how have you used your time and skills learned through tennis and educational programming to impact the lives of those around you? You can read Lea’s essay by clicking on this link: Gathering Pebbles.
So what do you get if you win the AAES? Lea gets an all-expense paid trip to NYC for Arthur Ashe Kids Day! So what takes place at the AAKD? She will be at an award ceremony with some big dignitaries in the morning and then hit Billie Jean King National Tennis Center and Arthur Ashe Stadium in the afternoon for some tennis and hanging out with a ton of kids and a few other “cool” people including:
Country superstar Hunter Hayes, breakout duo MKTO, girl group McCLAIN, British pop rock band The Vamps, teen sensation Madison Beer and EDM prodigy DJ Salerno will team up with tennis icons Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal at the 19th Annual Arthur Ashe Kids’ Day Presented by Hess Saturday, Aug. 23 at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing, N.Y., from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Singer and actress China Anne McClain (Sing Your Face Off, A.N.T. Farm) and Jeff Sutphen (Figure It Out, BrainSurge), will co-host the show with a special guest appearance by popular fitness trainer and choreographer, Shaun T. WOW – Lea is really going to have FUN!
But wait – that’s not all.
USTA WY was trying to raise funding for the Wyoming Youth Tennis Foundation and was given two tickets to the President’s Box at this year’s US Open to use as a fund raiser. You cannot buy tickets into the President’s Box – they are by invitation only and are valued at $5,000. To make things even better USTA WY Board Member and ITA President, Angela Emery, donated two additional tickets on the day before and USTA WY purchased two tickets for after the President Box tickets days. Individuals who donated a minimum of $250 were put into a drawing for this incredible opportunity to be in the best seats, in the largest tennis stadium in the world, at the largest attended annual sporting event in the world – the US Open Tennis Championships.
We held the drawing for this exceptional opportunity during the recent Adult 18+ League event in Laramie. Greg Rich from Cheyenne was the lucky winner of the Presidents Box Seat tickets and he immediately donated them to Lea. Talk about winning BIG!
On behalf of all the Board members we would like to thank all the folks that made our WYTF fund raiser a huge success – we raised $5,140 thanks to these generous donors: Terri Colling, Julie Francis, Greg Rich, Stephanie Soler, Angela and Steve Emery, Dave and June Boon, Annie Bergman, Brendan McKinney, John Yost, Larry and Brenda Graham, Faith and Mike May, Dan and Jennifer Visosky, Jenny and Danny Shervin , Jack and Jill Livingood, Tom Ellbogen, Robert and Pricilla Gill, Alpine Tennis Association, and Casper Community Tennis Association. Thanks to all!
We are so proud of Lea and her winning essay -- HAVE FUN in NYC!