Tennis 4 FUNTennis 4 FUNA $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.
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.”
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.