Tennis welcome break for refugees

<a href=www.stcatharinesstandard.ca>The Standard By Bernie Puchalski Tuesday, April 22, 2003 - 02:00

Local Sports - Dusk is rapidly approaching as Manny Rumbos steers a Niagara Academy of Tennis van into the parking lot behind the Days Inn Prudhommes Landing. Smiling faces greet his arrival and he’s welcomed by Spanish-speaking voices shouting “Ola.” Pouring out of a strip motel, which acts as the City of Toronto’s Birkdale Residence Out of Town Program for recent refugees to Canada, eight people pile into the van in anticipation of the short trip down Regional Road 24 to the tennis academy. Several are new to Canada while others, such as 33-year-old Silvio Pinzon, have been in the country for a few months becoming acclimatized and resolving their immigration status. “Hey, compadre,” yells out Rumbos, when he hears one of the van’s occupants has arrived two days ago from Venezuela, the country of his birth. Rumbos, the Tennis Pathways manager for the Niagara Academy of Tennis, is getting used to greeting new faces in his role with the Ontario Tennis Association program. The provincial body received a $350,000-plus grant from the Trillium Foundation and the Vineland club is the first to utilize Trillium funds for the introduction to tennis program. Refugees come to the tennis academy twice a week to learn tennis and socialize. About 25 to 30 show up for every session, with most coming from Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Columbia, Costa Rica, Venezuela, Turkey and Israel. “They love it,” Rumbos says. “They can’t wait to play.” The program runs in nine-week rotations and the first session concluded its eighth week last Thursday. “I have a blast. This is the highlight of my week,” says Rumbos. “We’ve had a couple of kids who have arrived on a Monday and come here on Thursday night. They’re completely lost and the smile on the tennis court is the first one they’ve had in Canada. It’s a huge payback for everybody.” “Manny and his team are very good,” said Tania Valko, a shelter counsellor with the City of Toronto. “They find different ways of communicating.” The shelter, which can accommodate up to 54 families, houses refugees who arrive in Canada from border crossings in Windsor, Montreal, Fort Erie and Pearson International Airport in Toronto. They go through a screening process before being referred to the shelter by the City of Toronto’s Central Family Intake. Shelter residents spend their days working on their immigration applications and learning English at the St. Catharines Multicultural Centre. The children attend either St. Catharines Collegiate or Woodland School. The average stay is between six and eight weeks, and the tennis program is a welcome reprieve from boredom. “I think they’re more pro cricket players than tennis players, but they’re happy to come out, get in new surroundings and break tradition,” Valko said. “And there’s lots of intermingling.” For Pinzon, who arrived in Canada from Fort Erie with his pregnant wife and daughters aged 12 and two, the tennis lessons are eagerly anticipated. “It’s nice. It’s recreation and it’s a good distraction.” His family left Colombia because of repeated death threats from paramilitary groups. Pinzon, an agricultural engineer and his wife, a doctor, are hoping to train in Canada and resume their careers. For the OTA, the Tennis Pathways program’s goal is simple. “The main goal is to build healthier communities through tennis, and that’s why it was the biggest Trillium grant ever awarded to the sporting community,” said Flora Karsai, OTA Pathways manager. “It’s not just a learn-tennis program. It’s community building and getting people together.” And if it helps improve the calibre of tennis played in Canada, even better. “If we’re the first sport they are exposed to, then boom,” Rumbos said. “Out of 1,000 kids, 10 might become the next (Daniel) Nestor.” For the OTA, the Niagara Academy of Tennis program had obvious appeal. “In Pathways, it’s important to get different community leaders and communities involved in the program,” Karsai said.