Written by Jabin Lewis
Before all the chaos of the year 2020, the Marshallese Tennis Club of Springdale, Arkansas enjoyed spending their days training for sporting events and simply being in each other’s company. The Marshallese Tennis Club began in the year 2019 with less than twenty members. They have recently reached as many as fifty members in total. With everyone’s lives becoming more and more glued to their screens, the Marshallese Tennis Club is in hopes of reaching out to others who are eager to make a difference in the health of their community.
The Marshallese community is well-known for their love of basketball and volleyball, but the Marshallese Tennis Club had been created to promote diversity in sports for the Marshallese community. With Terriko Kaminaga Lokebol as the president, the Marshallese Tennis Club strives to expand more as the years go on. The club has had four tournaments since their establishment and plan to work towards future fundraisers and events. Their meetings have been held through social media, which is their means of communication. The Marshallese Tennis Club welcomes members of all ages to join as well. Vice President, Benedict Muller, stands in support of the club with their president and claims to be open-minded throughout the journey.
“Everyone is a huge role for this club,” said Muller, “and the goal is to join the Majuro tours and expand our budget to hold more events.” He then went on to say, “we want to get more generations involved to help the club expand and spend less time on social medias all day.” Benedict Muller and his fellow club members would meet up and train at George or Tyson park, depending on the schedules of all members. With most of the members as working adults, the Marshallese Tennis Club had found their own solution to keeping up with all the different work schedules. “We try to prioritize our member’s time by knowing their schedules and seeing what works best as far as meetings go,” explained Muller. Outdoor places have slowly reopened during the pandemic in the state of Arkansas, and the tennis club has yet to restart their meetings.
The Marshallese community has many clubs to promote healthy living and the Marshallese Tennis Club is avid to do the same. Join the Marshallese Tennis Club by contacting their Vice President, Benedict Muller, for a chance to make a difference in your health today.