The CYTF Board of Trustees awarded $18,784 at their recent Spring disbursement meeting.
In all, fifteen youth received special need scholarships to help them play tennis this summer. Support also provides access to equipment (racquets, strings, shoes, tennis balls) so these junior players have the necessary tools to be successful.
The following four organizations also received funding in the form of grants to help with tennis programs for kids from under-resourced communities.
From May through October, the Colorado Lions Youth Organization will offer weekly tennis programming for kids from the Montbello community for the second year in a row. Many past participants are excited to get back on the courts and the word has spread to new kids from the community. In all, about 40 players are expected to learn and play tennis thanks to the organization and the involvement of the Denver Tennis Park and volunteers who help make it happen.
The Eastern Colorado Tennis Association (ECTA) is a newly formed USTA National Junior Tennis and Learning chapter serving up tennis to youth and families in Fort Morgan and surrounding communities on the eastern plains of Colorado. The organization works in close collaboration with schools and park and recreation districts to introduce tennis and provide follow up program opportunities available year-round. The ECTA aims to work with 250 youth in 2022.
The Denver Tennis Park is initiating a new program at Abraham Lincoln High School in west Denver to create interest around the sport of tennis and serve as a potential springboard to establish boys’ and girls’ tennis teams in the future. Targeting approximately 20 students, ages 15-18, who may never have considered tennis as a viable option from the school, the program is specially designed to get students excited and quickly playing.
The tennis program through Fraser Valley Metro Recreation District continues to grow and will provide lessons and fun play formats to 115 youth, ages 5-18, in the valley twice weekly for ten weeks during the summer. This year, children from a local pre-school within walking distance to the courts will have the opportunity to get involved as well, paving the way for the development of life-long tennis players.
The CYTF will again consider scholarship and grants applications in the fall. The application deadline is September 1.