News

Platform Tennis Club to honor Freeman with memorial tournament, fundraiser

Monday, March 22, 2021

(March 22, 2021) The Ocean Pines Platform Tennis Club will host its third annual benefit tournament on April 24, at the Ocean Pines Racquet Center.

This year, the club has dedicated the tournament to Jim Freeman, an active platform tennis member who passed away on March 15 after a battle with cancer.

Freeman, according to his obituary, served the U.S. Marines with honor and later worked for 31 years as a seventh-grade science teacher at Keith Valley Middle School in Horsham, Pennsylvania. He retired to Ocean Pines with his wife, June, and “always kept active with platform tennis, where he made many wonderful and caring friends and served as the president of the platform tennis group for many years.”

The Platform Tennis Club will donate all tournament proceeds to Semper Fi & America's Fund, a nonprofit “dedicated to providing immediate financial assistance and lifetime support to combat wounded, critically ill and catastrophically injured members of all branches of the U.S. Armed Forces and their families.”

Sue Walter, one of the tournament organizers, said the goal of the tournament is to "help OPPTA to remember and honor our friend who lived and breathed platform tennis."

"Jim Freeman was a huge part of platform tennis and we will all miss him terribly," she said. "He would be so proud and happy we were doing this to raise money for the Marines charity, Semper Fi."

All platform tennis clubs in Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey and Pennsylvania may compete. Individual players may also enter.

The entry deadline is April 17, and the entry fee is a $50 donation, per player.

Checks may be made payable to Semper Fi/America's Fund, "in Memory of Jim Freeman," mailed with an entry form to Michael Petito, 4 Long Court, Ocean Pines, Maryland, 21811.

To download an entry form, visit https://oceanpines.org/webdav/pages/document_library/OPA%20uploads/2021%20Tournament%20for%20Jim%20%20Freeman.pdf.

For questions or more information, contact Walter at cbreeze601@verizon.net or Petito at  map11946@yahoo.com.