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The USTA grant funding was immediately put to use at our wheelchair tennis program at Harvard University. The program allows individuals with physical disabilities interested in tennis a chance to participate in a first class tennis instructional program. The program was able to utilize grant funds for maintenance and wheelchair adaptation for camp participants so that their chairs were safe and effective for court play. This program allows individuals the opportunity to experience tennis on a regular basis. The program has begun to branch out into the community and has recruited several new players from Spaulding Rehab. In addition we have done a clinic with individuals from the Wounded Warrior Paralyzed Veterans Facility. Most recently two of the top wheelchair athletes have been participating in our able bodied clinics and mixers with over 36 able bodied participants, a great way to expose the tennis community to wheelchair tennis!
The current weekly program meets on Monday nights at Harvard, in the past months we have had nine new athletes that share two chairs. The clinic averages around 14 people that come out weekly as well. The vision would be to provide a chair for each individual. The organization looks forward to reaching out into the communit and making the game of tennis available to all interested new participants.
Finally, for any USTPA tennis professionals, we highly encourage them to come in and get hands on training anytime, to learn more about wheelchair tennis and to expand their knowledge and work with our players on a weekly basis.