The GreatLife Cares Foundation Tennis Complex at Tomar Park

                        By Carissa Dice and Brad Green

Sioux Falls had always been lacking a 12 court tennis complex, which was unusual for a city of our size.

Our goal was to build a nice outdoor complex with great viewing, plenty of seating, shade structures and a permanent tennis shack. This would allow us to host larger tournaments, and so that the state tournament wouldn’t have to be spread out at multiple locations.

Tomar Park seemed like the ideal location since it’s right off the interstate for those traveling outside of Sioux Falls. The park has a natural “bowl” setup which helps with wind protection and would also provide more courts on the south side of Sioux Falls.

Lydia Healy was pivotal in initiating this project and always believing that it would be built. She was a great cheerleader and so enthusiastic and was able to secure many of donations herself. Her positivity and excitement on the project was contagious – she’s a hard one to say no to! The timing of this project certainly wasn’t ideal with the COVID-19 pandemic. It took some time to secure a location and convince the city to donate the land for the project.

We knew that the Huether Family Match Pointe wanted to expand and was going to be fundraising soon as well. There were going to a few challenges that we had to work through. But I can honestly say if it wasn’t for Lydia’s tenacity and determination, it wouldn’t have been built.

Here's a timeline:

May 2018 – City saw too many issues with Tomar Park proposal and said that location would not work and suggested we look at the Sanford Sports Complex, or to expand at a school. The main issue was that it would eliminate the majority of the general park use area that they believe was heavily used.

July 2019 – Lydia hired Confluence and then met with the mayor and key parks department members. Mayor Paul TenHaken was in favor of the complex and said it would be a great gift to the city. He wanted to know if we’d build pickleball courts. We would need to present our proposal to the Parks board for approval.

2020 - Neighborhood meetings were held at Prairie Green. No major concerns from neighborhood.

Feb 2020 – We received $10,000 grant from USTA Northern and also received a $50,000 grant from USTA National.

2020 - We hired Chuck Hiatt with Hiatt Strategic Consulting to help with campaign. The goal at the time was just over $2 million. We experienced challenges with COVID and recruiting volunteers. We had to be very clear about who SFTA is and how we represent grassroots, community-based tennis. We needed to explain our purposes very clearly. We were creating a hub for youth and adult tennis as well as a great tournament location.

2020 - Lead gifts were provided by Dan and Lydia Healy and Eric and Emily Weisser. SFTA had $100,000 set aside to contribute to the project.

2021 - We publicly kicked off our “Playing it Forward” campaign, which had been suggested by Greg Jamison.

2021 - We finalized agreement with the city and had to pass two city council votes.

2022 - We held our groundbreaking ceremony.

2023 - We received the USTA Outstanding Facility Award that was presented during the US Open in NYC.

Tom Walsh gave a significant donation to name the courts - The GreatLife Cares Foundation Tennis Complex at Tomar Park. He was also pivotal in securing the Ben and Mark Graham family donation.

Our court donors were the Healys, the Weissers, SFTA, Damon Thielen, Ed and Bridget Czarnecki, Tim and Mona Ness, Peggy Wittmier-Brower, the Volin family, Tom and Melissa Howes, Richard and Sherry Jamison and the Hylland Family, Denny Sanford, and Erin Frost-Elshami.

Rob Everist provided us with a very generous in-kind donation on concrete.

Lydia and Carissa initiated a financial institution challenge and were able to secure donations from The First National Bank, First Bank and Trust, CorTrust, LEVO Credit Union, First Interstate Bank, First Premier Bank and Quoin Bank

The Tomar Park Committee members consisted of Lydia, Carissa, Thomas Chiu, Emily Geraets, Jerry and Kim Grabow, Greg Jamison, Jeff Nelson, John Schreurs and Marianne La Nasa.

SFTA Board members from 2020 who voted to approve contributing funds to this project and naming a court were: Lydia Healy (Executive Director), Carissa Dice (President) Thomas Chiu (VP), Pip Ong (Treasurer), Maxx Hickey (Secretary), Virginia DeBoer, Marc Kurtz, Gary Goldade, Beth Stoutamire, John Schreurs, Richard Thomason, Tom Krueger and Cara Lovrien.

Almost 200 individuals and businesses contributed to our project! We’d like to say thank you to these wonderful donors!

SFTA purchased a bus last year and had it retrofitted to be our traveling, moveable tennis “shack!” It is wrapped in bright purple with images of tennis players and rackets. We currently use our bus to store balls, scorecards, and various pieces of tennis equipment. We’re still fundraising for a permanent shack.