Miami-Dade Parks received over $10,000 in grant funding from United States Tennis Association of Florida to provide “QuickStart Tennis” at its “Fit-to- Play Out-of-School” programs.
QuickStart Tennis is a new way of learning the basics of tennis and how to play, designed for children ages 10 and under, and features smaller court sizes, racquet sizes, foam and low-bounce balls, a simple scoring system, and net heights adjusted to ease kids into the sport of tennis.
USTA Florida provided MDC Parks with $8,001 for QuickStart Tennis equipment which includes the mini net systems, rackets, balls and other equipment. used for QuickStart Tennis. Part of an initial commitment to make QuickStart Tennis available at all Miami-Dade Park, Outof- School sites will be available at 23 courts at nine park sites which include Arcola Lakes, Colonial Drive, Goulds, Modello, North Glade, Sgt. Delancy, and West Perrine Park.
An additional grant for $1,875 from USTA (National), USTA Florida, and Friends of Miami Tennis will help fund for the addition of blended lines at the already-existing, full-size public courts.
“We are committed to bringing tennis to the children in Miami-Dade County and we are happy to be partnering with Miami-Dade Park’s and their Fit-to-Play Out-of-School program,” said Cathy Nordlund, Program Coordinator for USTA Florida.
“Receiving the Share the Love grant will aid us in providing well-rounded, structured and affordable tennis programs to the youth in our Out-of-School programs,” said Carolyn T. Gibson, North Region Manager for Miami-Dade Park and Recreation Department.
The third largest county park system in the United States, consisting of 263 parks and more than 12,848 acres of land, Miami-Dade Parks includes Crandon Tennis Center, home of the Sony Ericsson Open—the USTA’s fifth largest tennis tournament. USTA Florida is a not-forprofit tennis association comprised of over 1,000 member organizations throughout the state, with approximately 50,000 individual members.
