Rich Williams and I met while working together nearly ten years ago. In fact, shortly after that I introduced him to Rehoboth Beach. A few years later Rich would meet his partner, Jim Nolan, here. Rich now organizes the Rehoboth Beach Open, a gay tennis tournament held here earlier this month. For the last two years Jim has been involved with bringing foreign exchange students from the Mid-Atlantic and Florida to Rehoboth Beach for a brief stay before returning to their home countries.

Mark: Do both of you remember how you met here in Rehoboth Beach?

Jim: I’ve been coming to the beach for over seven years and Rich has been in Rehoboth for over eight years. I was in a beach share at the time living in Philadelphia and Rich had just bought his first condo at Star of the Sea.

We were at the Blue Moon and my friend introduced himself to Rich by saying, "nice shirt." His response was, "This old thing?" But Rich says he was thinking, "Nice friend." We talked for a little while, and then went our separate ways. We met again later at Cloud 9 and made a date.

Mark: What’s the gay tennis tournament circuit like?

Rich: The Gay and Lesbian Tennis Alliance (GLTA) circuit has forty nonprofit tournaments worldwide with over 5,000 players. Tournaments range in size from 60 to 350 players for the annual events to well over 1,000 players for the quadrennial Gay Games. All events provide an inclusive, welcoming environment and a great chance to make friends with common interests. It is quite competitive though. We maintain a rankings database of all players, and many players train and prepare in order to pursue their personal best.

Mark: What gave you the idea to create the Rehoboth Beach Open tennis tournament?

Rich: I had been playing GLTA events since 2001, and while I enjoyed traveling to them I regretted not being able to compete in my summer hometown. I also recognized that the GLTA tour didn’t have a single event in a gay-friendly summer resort town, so the opportunity to offer a unique tournament experience was clearly there. It turns out there were well over 100 people willing to take a chance and register for our untested event, but we could only accommodate 93 of them due to limited court availability.

Mark: It appears to have been a great success. Was it what you expected?

Rich: The tournament exceeded our expectations on every level including overall demand, fundraising potential, player satisfaction, community support, weather quality, sponsorships, and unfortunately workload! But when we hear the positive feedback from players who had a great time here and see how we were able to raise in excess of $4,000 for our beneficiaries, we all know our efforts were well worth it.

Mark: Any surprises?

Rich: The GLTA has always strived to develop a critical mass of women players with mixed results, so we were quite surprised by the level of interest expressed for a separate women’s event at the Rehoboth Beach Open. There were a couple of women who played including one who was runner-up in the D Division, but many others didn’t realize they were welcome to enter. Unfortunately, we didn’t have enough courts for a separate women’s event, but we hope to find a way around that next year by either securing more court time or adding an extra day to the tournament.

Mark: Coincidentally the American Field Service (AFS) was the first organization I every volunteered for many years ago when in school. Jim, when did you first get involved with AFS?

Jim: I got involved with AFS as a junior in high school and was an exchange student to Germany. I got involved again as a volunteer three years ago in Washington, DC.

Mark: How does the foreign exchange student’s visit to Rehoboth Beach fit into their year spent here in the United States?

Jim: The students have either studied a semester or a year in the DC area or Florida and their visit to Rehoboth Beach is part of their "end of stay" orientation. This is a process whereby we begin reacquainting them with their culture. They are leaving their US family who they have grown close to over the past 6 to 9 months. It’s a time to slowly ease them into a transitional phase of sending them back home.

Mark: Has it been easy finding volunteer sponsors to house the students during their visit?

Jim: The first year it was a little difficult, because of the nature of this being a resort community with fewer people living here full time. However, through the support of local Rehoboth Beach churches and other volunteer community activists we were able to find thirteen families in year one and seventeen families in year two to support our efforts. Last year and this year’s host families have been very enthusiastic. A majority of host families wished that the students could have stayed longer.

Mark: Are there thoughts of expanding this annual event?

Jim: We’re going to continue the event next year. It will always happen either the weekend before or during July Fourth holiday, depending on school schedules. In 2005 we have an estimated fifty to sixty foreign exchange students coming to Rehoboth Beach.

Mark: Do you have a little known Rehoboth Beach pleasure?

Jim: When we leave Miami Beach we like leaving the South Beach Diet behind and enjoy a diet of pizza at Nicola’s and ice cream at Royal Treat.

Mark: What makes Rehoboth Beach an ideal spot for you to have as a summer home?

It’s close enough to our families in Pennsylvania and New York, so that they can come visit us during the summer.

Mark: Was the tennis tournament or foreign exchange student visit more challenging?