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Long Island Tennis Charitable Initiatives

LONG ISLAND TENNIS

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SPORTIME Amagansett Hosts Successful Charity Pro-Am Event raises money for the Johnny Mac Tennis Project

Each year, the Johnny Mac Tennis Project (JMTP), a 501(c)(3) founded by tennis legend John McEnroe, hosts a pro-am event in the Hamptons to raise money in support of the charity’s mission of providing free community and school programs and scholarships to the John McEnroe Tennis Academy to underresourced, talented and deserving children in New York City.

Like everything else this year, the 2020 JMTP Pro-Am was a bit different than in the event’s previous years due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, a brutal weather forecast forced the event to be pushed back a day. Despite these potential road blocks, JMTP put on a oneof-a-kind event at SPORTIME Amagansett.

“The 2020 Johnny Mac Tennis Project’s 6th annual Pro-Am was the most gratifying yet,” said Claude Okin, SPORTIME Clubs’ President and Chief Executive Officer. “COVID-19 took away our annual who’s who of tennis legends, locked JMTP leaders, John and Patrick McEnroe, in the U.S. Open bubble, and caused us to dramatically pare down the event to assure

social distancing. We had to ask our friends and supporters to focus on the charity, and on the tennis, more than the hoopla, and then we had our first rain date! Despite all the challenges, we had 112 committed pros and amateurs, played great tennis crowned amazing champions, and raised over $200,000 for JMTP’s deserving NYC tennis kids.”

While the event is JMTP’s primary annual fundraiser, providing essential support towards its mission to provide high-quality tennis programming to young NYC players who could not otherwise afford it, this year’s event was also symbolic of the resiliency of the local tennis community.

“Considering that we almost cancelled the event, we are all very relieved at how well JMTP did,” added Okin. “As Johnny Mac likes to say, ‘NYC is the greatest city in the world’, and, although some New Yorkers are in the Hamptons and elsewhere right now, JMTP is all about supporting under-resourced NYC kids and changing their lives through tennis. And NYC is not going anywhere, nor is SPORTIME or the John McEnroe Tennis Academy, or our important and growing charitable partnership with the Johnny Mac Tennis Project. I think in the end that is what the Pro-Am represented this year for a lot of the folks who played and volunteered. It was really awesome.”

In a year that has been so unpredictable and, at times, hard to bear, the Pro-Am was a reminder of the impact tennis can have on so many lives. The outpouring of support demonstrates just how important it is to have tennis back in the fold, both on Long Island and in New York City.

Said Jordan Botjer, Executive Director of the Johnny Mac Tennis Project, “We are moved by how many sponsors, pros, amateurs and volunteers rallied to support the event and to raise critical funds to help JMTP remove social, economic and racial barriers to success through tennis.”

Event sponsors included Lalique, which provided trophies to the champion and runner-up, BodyArmor, Thunderbird Bars, C.O. Bigelow, Solinco, Head/Penn and Bird in Hand.

You can learn more about the Pro-Am and all the great work that JMTP does year-round by visiting www.JMTPNY.org.

Tennis truly is the sport of a lifetime, and for the kids who are involved with the Learning Institute of Tennis, Life Skills and Sportsmanship (LITLSS), that mantra could not be any truer.

The LITLSS, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, was started more than 30 years ago by longtime tennis coach Daniel Burgess, who continues to run the program, and the group, who range from Pre-K through 10th Grade, just wrapped up a successful summer despite the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Social distancing was a bit of a challenge. My wife is a nurse, so she would come down and help us mark off areas where the kids could stand, provided masks and did temperature checks,” said Burgess. “We ran the program for about five weeks and no one got sick, so it was a

success…This was the best thing that could’ve happened to the kids this summer. They’ve been locked in their homes for months, and these are kids who are used to being active. So to get out of the house, go outside and play a sport, they were all very excited.”

The program is free for kids to attend, and the program asks for donations but they are not required.

“We do ask for donations, but we don’t require it,” added Burgess. “We don’t want anyone coming to us and saying that they can’t afford this, so it’s free. I want to make sure every kid has the opportunity to experience tennis.”

And like the program’s title indicates, it does more than just teach tennis skills to the kids. The kids get writing and reading enrichment classes once a week, as well as

cultural enrichment classes which this year included a demonstration of West African dance. The kids did their part to give back to their community this summer as well, helping clean up debris from fallen trees in the park and on the tennis courts in the aftermath of Tropical Storm Isaias. Because of their hard-work and community service, the program got a visit from Nassau County Executive Laura Curran.

Now three decades in, the program continues to flourish and Burgess continues to hear from many of his former students on whom he has had a major impact.

“I felt like I could help these kids through sport, and through a sport that they can play for a lifetime,” he said. “I spoke with one of my former students just recently, who went onto join the FDNY. 30 years after I first taught him, he wants to start playing tennis again.

Those are my biggest success stories, the people who have come out of the program who have gone on to be civil service workers, lawyers, doctors, engineers, social workers, and many of whom have gone on to become tennis directors or top coaches.

You can learn more about LITLSS by visiting www.TennisLifeSkills.org.

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