Italian Vamos Brigade's Gift for Rafa

For the VB, the 2007 Rome Masters was not all about another amazing title by Rafa. It also marked the end of a long project by our Italian members: making and delivering a special gift for Rafa. The original concept was Giulietta's : to bring a part of the board to Rafa, so that he would be aware of what he means to his Italian VB fans. Many members then made individual pages, which Giulietta put together to form a book.



The finished product included collages of newspaper titles about Rafa, a drawing by Tania, a homage to Rafa's on-court habits, as well as many features on Rafa's appearance in Rome last year. The fans also put in a lot of personal information about being a Rafa fan. In addition to photos of their own Rafa corners at home, Ale described her favourite Rafa phrases, and how she felt they could be an inspiration to everyone in their daily lives. The book also included photos of them all meeting up. As Ale said "we are all friends now, and it is all thanks to Rafa".



After making the book, the next challenge was the delivery of the gift to Rafa! Ale describes how this was accomplished:

"The biggest problem was how to succeed in giving it to Rafa in Rome... because there was a lot of security and it was impossible to get near Rafa.....Nancy (supernova on the board) was a volunteer in the tournament and had a pass to enter some private zones... but it was not easy to meet Rafa. She tried everything to get us access into the players' zone, but this was not possible without a pass.

"It was friday morning, and Rafa was waiting for his practice.... Nancy went into the players' zone, very near to the practice courts, and she met him... she gave him the gift and he was very nice to her... he said thank you and posed for a pic. Afterwards he went to the court for his practice, and Giulietta and I were in the stands to watch him... he arrived, not with his rackets... but with our gift!!!! During training, some of Rafa's entourage began to read it too. When we saw Rafa with "our" book, we kept on saying "nooooooooooooooo…it's not possible!". We were shocked but really happy!"



Well done to our Italian Vamos Brigade for such a lovely gift and for their success in getting it to Rafa! Another VB mission accomplished!