The John N. Russell Memorial Doubles Tournament was held on July 22, 2016 in Alexandria Bay, NY.
John Russell was a compassionate man and strong community leader in the North County both In the areas of business and community service. He passed away over 2 years ago. He was a true “RIver Rat” and he enjoyed tennis and kayaking. He was a strong supporter of the Alexandria Bay Chapter for the Foundation for Community Betterment. After his passing his widow, Natalie Austin, came to the tennis community and asked if we would volunteer to run a doubles tennis tournament in his honor the same weekend and the Golf and Paddle Events (These events were already formed and ongoing). Of course, the group enthusiastically said “yes!” And so the first Tournament was held in 2015.
We all came back for 2016 and fielded over 30 persons for another morning of excellent tennis, camaraderie and fun competition. The combined dollars given back to the community with proceeds generated by all three events: Golf, Tennis and Paddle was over $21,000! Fund recipients were the Marcia Hayden/Jerry Fitzgerald family which received a handicapped van so they could transport their son, The RIver hospital received funds to be applied towards their new Physical Therapy Room, and The Town of Alexandria will use their funds given by Betterment for the Immediate Need Fund in memory of Ronald J. McLennan. The community overwhelming comes out to support this weekend of golf, tennis and paddle. This is such a well received weekend by the community that we are doing the Tennis Tournament again in 2017.
The date for next year’s event will be Friday, July 21, 2017.