A $2,500 Program Support Grant helped bring tennis to K-8 students at six Coral Springs schools, with lessons held right where the kids already are.
The hardest part of getting a child into tennis is often not the tennis. It is the drive, the schedule and the cost.
Tennis 4 FUN built its afterschool program around removing all three. The K-8 program runs at six schools in Coral Springs, with sessions held on campus immediately after the final bell. No second trip across town, no separate pickup, and a price point families can actually manage. A $2,500 Program Support Grant from the USTA Florida Section Foundation helped make the expansion possible.
Enrollment has grown steadily since the program launched, and interest has come from both directions: families signing their children up, and school communities asking how to get involved.
What the kids are getting
The sessions are built for beginners and near-beginners, with an emphasis on fundamentals and fun. Students are picking up new skills, but the program’s organizers point to what happens around the tennis as the real return: confidence, discipline and teamwork, developed in a setting where every participant is learning at the same time.
For parents, the convenience is the headline. For the kids, it is that tennis turned out to be something they can do.
“This grant was an important part of our program’s success because it helped us provide children with access to tennis who may not otherwise have had the opportunity,” said a Tennis 4 FUN spokesperson. “It allowed us to expand our afterschool program, reach more families and create a positive environment.”
Why the Foundation funds this
Program Support Grants are the USTA Florida Section Foundation’s primary tool for getting tennis into communities that want it and need help paying for it. The funding covers on-court instruction, equipment, coach training and general program support, with priority given to youth tennis, adaptive tennis for players of all ages and abilities, and programs serving under-resourced communities.
Afterschool programs sit squarely in that priority. They meet children where they already are, remove the transportation barrier that keeps many families out of the sport, and introduce tennis at an age when it can become a lifelong habit.
Tennis 4 FUN has also extended the model into the summer, running weekday afternoon sessions in Coral Springs so the kids who found the sport during the school year have somewhere to keep playing.
Since 2005, the Foundation has delivered more than $2.5 million in community impact, supporting programs at more than 120 organizations across Florida.
That funding comes from individual and corporate donors, the Foundation’s recurring donor program, the US Open Experience fundraiser, and Florida’s “Play Tennis!” specialty license plate.
Applications for Program Support Grants open in two cycles each year. Learn more at USTAFloridaFoundation.com/apply-for-grants, or support programs like Tennis 4 FUN at USTAFloridaFoundation.com.
Posted by:
