Please assist them

The massive earthquake on February 22 has had a devastating effect on the Wilding Park Complex, severely damaging all of the 39 courts as well as causing considerable damage to the buildings.  
Engineers have already undertaken a preliminary assessment of the facilities and it appears all the buildings are repairable but the courts will require considerable reconstruction.

The facilities are owned by Wilding Park Foundation Incorporated which is a non-profit incorporated society and a registered charity licensed by the New Zealand Government.  The registered charity status means that New Zealand taxpayers are able to claim any donation made to the organisation against their income tax.

The prime purpose of Wilding Park Foundation Incorporated through its honorary board members is to assist the great game of tennis by supplying tennis facilities for the people of Canterbury to use.

Several people and organisations have already asked how they could make a donation to the reconstruction of the facility.  To assist these wonderful people and organisations details are provided below.

History

The land at Wilding Park was purchased by Canterbury Tennis (Tennis Canterbury Region Incorporated trading as Canterbury Tennis – another non-profit organisation and registered charity) in the early 1920s and gradually developed into the tennis centre it was before the earthquake.  It featured 39 courts including 6 indoor courts.  Its 39 courts make it the largest tennis centre in New Zealand and it is even large on a world scale.

Several years ago, during the restructure of tennis in New Zealand, the Wilding Park assets were transferred to the Wilding Park Foundation Incorporated to ensure they were held in trust in perpetuity for the tennis players of the region.

From the 1970s for three decades Wilding Park was known as ‘Davis Cup City’ with most of New Zealand’s home ties played there; this included many World Group ties or the earlier equivalent Zone Finals.  In the last decade it has hosted annual ITF Junior events, Futures events, the ITF World Team Cup, ITF Super Seniors, an Asian Zone Fed Cup tournament and of course the recent ITF Seniors Championships.

The Wilding Park Complex is named after members of the Wilding Family whose son, Anthony, is still the only New Zealander to win a Wimbledon singles title.

Wilding Park Foundation owns many of Anthony Wilding’s medals and trophies.

Operations

Canterbury Tennis operates the tennis centre for the Board of Wilding Park Foundation and organises a very large inter-club competition for its 110 non-profit member clubs. There are almost 1,000 teams playing each week.

About 80% of Canterbury Tennis’ focus is on junior tennis and in spring and summer it runs a coaching programme for around 15,000 school children in their schools (7-10 year age group) in order to foster their interest in the great game.

Canterbury Tennis also runs coaching programmes for elite junior players with a goal of having players in the main draw of the Australian Open Junior Championships each January.  

In addition Canterbury Tennis runs an extensive array of coach education programmes and particularly focuses on those wishing to assist in clubs on a volunteer basis.

Donations

If you would like to make a donation towards the reconstruction of Wilding Park you can do so by making a payment to the special bank account below or by sending it to Wilding Park Foundation, PO Box 26 069, North Avon, Christchurch, New Zealand.

The bank account number is:  ASB Bank 12-3148-0008889-53.

If you are making a donation from outside New Zealand please ask your bank to include the          Swift Code ASBBNZ2a.

The donations will be used only towards the reconstruction of Wilding Park and will be administered by two prominent Christchurch solicitors and long serving honorary tennis administrators, Lindsay North and Peter Maciaszek.

If you make a donation directly to the bank account please advise us of your contact details by letter or e-mail in order for the appropriate letter of thanks to be forwarded to you and to allow us to keep you informed of progress with the reconstruction.  

For further details please contact David Blackwell on david.blackwell@xtra.co.nzor cellphone 0274 329 345 or write to PO Box 26 069, North Avon, Christchurch, New Zealand.

Thank you.