Charity Spotlight
USTA Northern is committed to giving back to the community and supporting important causes. One way the section will accomplish these goals in 2024 is by partnering with a tennis community or tennis nonprofit organization for a monthly charity fundraising initiative.
For this initiative, the chosen organization will be able to fundraise on the USTA Northern website for a month, during which time USTA Northern will match dollar-for-dollar up to $5,000. The organization will have the opportunity to promote the fundraiser both on the USTA Northern website and through their own channels and the section will provide support in the form of social media promotion and email outreach to USTA members.
Minneapolis Community Clay Courts - DONATE HERE
Minneapolis Community Clay Courts (MCCC) was founded in 2019 with the mission to build community by making clay court tennis accessible to everyone. Partnering with the Minneapolis Parks and Recreation Board (MPRB), their vision is to build and maintain nationally recognized, unique public park experiences for everyone in Minneapolis. Similar to a community garden, a public clay tennis court brings together people of all ages and backgrounds to use and maintain a public facility. Community members are stewards of this environmentally friendly space. This project aligns with the Minneapolis Park Board’s mission to promote health, well-being and community. They build and maintain new clay surfaced tennis courts in public parks where the hard surfaced courts are currently in disrepair.
They do this work for several reasons.
Community: Taking responsibility for maintaining clay courts and enjoying this unique athletic experience is an excellent civic engagement project. These courts provide an inter-generational gathering space for people with widely varied socio-economic backgrounds.
Accessibility: With the exception of MCCC locations, clay courts are only available to people with the resources to join private tennis clubs. Their courts are the only clay court facility in the Twin Cities metropolitan area available to everyone for free.
Health: Their courts are softer than traditional asphalt creating a tennis experience that is easier on players' joints, allowing them to continue to play tennis as they age.
Environment: Clay courts are permeable. Moisture seeps into the court surface rather than running off into storm drains. This helps protect watershed resources and keeps the urban landscape cooler.
Sustainability: Clay courts last forever if properly maintained because the surface does not crack. The quality of MCCC courts will always be as good the first day they opened.
In 2021, MCCC built two clay courts at Waveland Triangle Park, in the Linden Hill neighborhood in southwest Minneapolis. That project is entering it's third season, and has been a great success. So successful, in fact, that the main complaint is that people cannot get on the courts. To fix that, they are once again partnering with the MPRB to build two more courts along the Minnehaha Creek but need your help to succeed.
The goal of this fundraiser is to raise $10,000. USTA Northern will match funds raised through this link, up to $5,000. This amount gets them a third of the way toward the total goal, which would keep them on pace to begin construction as planned in the fall of 2025.
Additional details on eligibility, participation criteria and more are available here.
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