Madson’s court

Friday, March 28, 2008

Click here to enlarge this photo Submitted photo Christianna Madson, right, shows Leanne Rudell how to serve. E-Mail This Article | Print This Story Click here to enlarge this photo Staff photo by MICHAEL REID After a strong football season, Patuxent junior sprinters, from left, Colin Pichon, Ra’Joun Nelson, Eric Farmer and Justin Ford hope to have the same success on the track.

Instead of getting a trainer, she trained. Instead of going to a tennis camp, she ran a tennis camp. Instead of working on her backhand and forehand swings, she taught them.

In fulfilling her Girl Scouts community service hours requirement, Madson organized, and ran, an eight-week tennis camp from Aug. 21 to Oct. 11, for kids ages six through 14, on tennis courts in the Patuxent Points Community in Solomons.

Madson was to propose a community service project, plan it, organize it, run it, have all necessary paper work filled out, and meet an hours logged requirement, in order to receive the Gold Award, the Girl Scouts’ top honor awarded to approximately 3,000 members a year nationally.

‘‘I have been in Girl Scouts since I was five years old,” Madson said, ‘‘and getting this project done, and receiving the Gold Award is the ultimate reward for me.”

After submitting an 11-page proposal, and having it accepted, Madson hit the advertisement trail and put flyers around neighborhoods, in addition to spreading news about the camp by word of mouth.

Madson and her volunteers, which included Patuxent head coach Pete Siegert along with Patuxent tennis team members, ran sessions twice a week for the eight-week period. Approximately 20 eager learners showed up at each session.

‘‘The kids were excited, and I was excited to watch them learn,” Madson said. ‘‘At first the participants were surprised that a kid was in charge of them. But once they got used to it, they were well behaved throughout the entire camp. They listened to me, and that made things a lot easier, and a lot of fun.”

The minimum hours required to complete the project, in addition to the completed paperwork, was 135 hours, 30 hours of leadership, 50 hours for the project, 40 hours of career-related activity, and 15 hours of planning. Madson was able to log 173 total hours in all.

‘‘It is a big deal,” Madson said of the Gold Award. ‘‘It is really exciting because I have completed everything I can do. My mother was in Girl Scouts, my grandmother was in Girl Scouts, and it really means a lot. Honestly, once I got through the initial planning it was a blast. The planning part of it was most difficult.”

Madson had a bevy of volunteers show up for each and every session she held, and she understands how important the volunteers were to making her camp a success.

‘‘Coach Pete [and assistant head coach Holton Hilliard] helped me out a lot,” Madson said. ‘‘He allowed me to use racquets for the kids that did not have any, and my teammates were great. Almost all of them showed up to a session at one time or another. They were a big help and all were great.”

Madson’s camp also had an effect on her Patuxent team. Her planning impressed Siegert so much so that he made her a team captain for the 2008 season.

‘‘Because of her organizational skills I have selected her to be captain of the tennis team along with Ryan Love,” Siegert said. ‘‘She is very dedicated to success in her life and her passions.”

Not only has Madson been named a captain of her team this season, but she has seen a direct correlation from volunteers in the camp coming to tennis team tryouts for the upcoming season.

‘‘I have seen a lot of my volunteers from the camp come and try out for the team this season,” Madson said. ‘‘I also have become closer with my coaches, and my tennis skills have also improved. I am excited about this season. I think we are going to have a great season. We have some really strong players this year along with twice the number of kids. We are really going to develop as a team, and it should be great.”