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City Parks
Foundation’s 19th Annual CityParks
Tennis Benefit
at the 2016 US Open Tennis Championships
On August 30,
2016, the City Parks Foundation’s annual CityParks
Tennis Benefit,
chaired by Billie Jean King, was held at the USTA Billie
Jean King National Tennis Center. The event, which welcomed 280 guests,
raised a record breaking $356,800 forCityParks Tennis, a
free youth instructional program that serves over 7,000
children in parks throughout New York City each season.
The Benefit,
which is held each year at the US Open Tennis Championships,
was hosted by Budd Mishkin and featured a cocktail party,
dinner, and tickets to the Open’s evening matches in Arthur
Ashe Stadium. This year, City Parks Foundation honored Paul
Annacone, former coach of Roger Federer and Pete
Sampras and former Top 15 Touring Professional, and Anthony
Mitchel, Tennis Teaching Professional, USTA Billie
Jean King National Tennis Center with the Vitas Gerulaitis
Community Service Award.
The event also
honored City Parks Foundation LACOSTE Junior Tennis Academy
player, 17
year-old Tamila Latif-Zade, with the 2016 Billie Jean King
Junior Achievement Award. Tamila,
of Brooklyn, joined the Academy program at age 10 and
graduated this year from Truman High School in the Bronx,
where she played number one on the school's tennis team.
Tamila spent this past summer teaching tennis at Hampton
Racquet, and has earned a spot as a ball girl for the 2016
US Open. She will attend Kingsborough Community College this
fall.
CityParks Tennis, a
City Parks Foundation program, brings high-quality
instruction and equipment into NYC neighborhoods where few
tennis or other organized athletic opportunities exist. The
program teaches tennis basics to kids ages 5-17, while
providing opportunities for advancement through multiple
levels of progressively challenging instruction. Our tennis
programs are offered in 39 parks, reaching more than 7,000
kids each year. Participants compete in tournaments and
train in special U.S. Open clinics with tennis legends
Billie Jean King, John McEnroe, Murphy Jensen, Virginia
Wade, and others. CityParks
Tennis also
offers a year-round, intermediate training program with more
advanced coaching for a select group of talented and
dedicated players, providing tournament opportunities with
the goal of earning college scholarships and USTA rankings.
City
Parks Foundation is
the only independent, nonprofit organization whose mission
is to offer programs in public parks throughout the five
boroughs of New York City. At City Parks Foundation, we are
dedicated to invigorating and transforming parks into
dynamic, vibrant centers of urban life through sports, arts,
community development, and education programs for all New
Yorkers. Our programs and community building initiatives --
located in more than 300 parks, recreation centers, and
public schools across the city -- reach 425,000 people each
year. Our ethos is simple: we
believe thriving parks reflect thriving communities. For
more details, please visit http://www.cityparksfoundation.org. |