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Governor Bush joins USTA to Launch “First Serve”
Unique
Inner-City After-School Initiative to Combat Digital Divide and Teach Tennis
Tallahassee, Fla. -
February 20, 2002 – The
United States Tennis Association (USTA) and Florida Governor Jeb Bush today
announced the launch of “First Serve”, a USTA national initiative that provides
inner-city youth an after-school program with access to adult volunteer mentors,
tutors, computers and the fun, physical activity of tennis.
This program is modeled
after the facility and curriculum of the Ashe-Buchholz Tennis Center at Moore
Park in Miami and the MaliVai Washington Kids Foundation in Jacksonville. These
programs provide a unique blend of tennis lessons, computers, academics and
mentoring which are the basic components of the “First Serve” concept.
The development of the
“First Serve” initiative is made possible through a unique array of partners
spearheaded by the USTA including Burger King, the premier national sponsor;
Court TV, as a media sponsor to produce and air PSAs; the Florida Department of
Education, which will provide funds for a mentor coordinator and snacks for the
children; IBM and other entities which will donate the computers; Microsoft,
which is donating software; municipal governments which are helping with the
facility space; tennis foundations, National Junior Tennis League chapters and
the local support of many individuals and programs such as Boys and Girls Clubs,
Communities in Schools (CIS), and local school boards. World-renowned, tennis
instructor Nick Bollettieri, will provide a scholarship to the nationally
acclaimed Bollettieri Tennis Academy for one boy and one girl at each “First
Serve” site, for a total of 26 scholarships.
Governor Bush’s commitment
to quality after-school programming and passion for the game of tennis inspired
and accelerated the launch of “First Serve” in Florida. “We’re honored to
be the first state in the nation to launch such an important initiative,” said
Bush. “As the model for a national campaign, we look forward to the terrific
impact ‘First Serve’ can have on Florida’s youth.”
“Launching ‘First Serve’ is
an important step in providing youth enriching opportunities to achieve on and
off the court,” said Tom Fetzer, Chief Executive, Community Tennis, USTA. “We
eagerly anticipate the success of this program and its far-reaching impact on
youth in Tallahassee, as well as throughout the country.”
“When Arthur Ashe and I
first talked about developing a tennis program and involving more youth in
tennis at Moore Park, we didn’t imagine that it might inspire something so
important,” said Nasdaq-100 Open Tournament Chairman Butch Buchholz. “’First
Serve’ will continue to provide inner-city kids extra resources to help them
reach their potential, academically and athletically.”
Tina McCall-Waters, Site
Leader of the Eatonville “First Serve” program, remarked, “As a former tennis
player on the national level, and one of the first black women players, I
eagerly anticipate ‘First Serve’ as an opportunity to reach out to
hundreds of deserving children who would never be exposed to tennis. In
Eatonville I look forward to teaching our students the discipline, skills, and
just plain fun that is tennis!”
Kelly Tucker, Site Leader
of the Jake Gaither Park “First Serve” program, stated that she expects
to enroll close to 100 students during the spring of 2002. Bond, Pineview,
Springfield, and Wesson Elementary Schools; Fairview, Griffen, and Nims Middle
Schools; FAMU, Rickards High School and the Second Chance School are all
planning to send students to the program.
Burger
King Corporation was founded in Miami in 1954. The BURGER KING® brand has become
recognized for great flame-broiled taste and HAVE IT YOUR WAY® food
customization. To learn more about the BURGER KING® system, visit http://www.burgerking.com.
Court TV (http://www.courttv.com
or AOL Key word: Court TV), a basic cable network, provides a window into the
American system of justice through distinctive programming that both informs and
entertains. A service of AOL Time Warner and Liberty Media Corp., Court TV has
over 63 million subscribers and expects to reach 65 million by early 2002.
CIS is the nation’s largest
stay-in-school network, currently providing access to services for more than one
million students and their families each year in more than 1,500 schools in 32
states and the District of Columbia. Its community-based, personalized approach
embodies the founder, William Milliken’s, long-held philosophy, “Programs don’t
change children, relationships do.”
The United States Tennis
Association owns and stages the US Open and selects the teams that compete in
Davis Cup, Fed Cup and the Olympic Games. The USTA is the national governing
body for the sport of tennis in America and is a non-profit organization with
more than 630,000 members. It invests all its resources to promote and develop
the growth of tennis, from the grass roots to the professional levels.
For
more information on enrolling a child in “First Serve”, becoming an academic
mentor or volunteering as a tennis instructor, contact the Governor’s Mentoring
Initiative at
www.flmentoring.org or
1-800-825-3786.
For
more information contact:
Seth
Sylvan, USTA Director of Communications, Community Tennis
(914) 696-7088 or sylvan@usta.com
Michelle Martinez, USTA Communications Assistant, Community Tennis
(914) 696-7202 or martinez@usta.com
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