This weekend, Clewanda Austin’s three kids were supposed to be enjoying a big trip to New York, visiting the U.S. Open tennis tournament and touring Central Park. But just hours before they were supposed to leave for the airport, she got word that the trip had been ruined by a meanie named Irene. “Oh, they were more than disappointed,” said Austin, of West Palm Beach, of Lynnese, 11, Ike, 7, and Denell, 4. “My son was crying, and my daughter was so hurt.” The kids are just three of the approximately 35 members of a Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office program called Kids and Police Tennis Association (KAPTA) who were to make the trip on Friday morning to the U.S. Open, where they would have participated in the Arthur Ashe Kids Day activities and even seen some of the tournament itself. But when the trip
was scuttled, members of the local tennis community made sure that the kids would get their tennis day – even if it was a little closer to home. “These kids were all packed and ready to go – some of them had never been on an airplane,” said KAPTA founder Deputy Ira Pescowitz. Instead of taking the kids to New York, he oversaw a day of skills clinics with some professionals and an exhibition by some top-ranked young players from the USTA National Tennis Academy in Boca Raton, at West Palm Beach’s Ibis Country Club on þSaturday. The quick save came about when Ibis tennis director Chuck Gill saw the disappointed notice on the club’s Facebook page “and thought that there had to be something that the pros could do. Between me and Trish Faulkner, the tennis director at Ballenisles, we rounded up enough teaching pros to do something for the kids.” The appearance of those pros, including Ricardo Acuna, once ranked 47th in the world, and Dick Stockton, once ranked 8th, “shows their loyalty to me, my cause and to my kids,” said Pescowitz, a former college player who formed KAPTA to “promote the game of tennis to kids who might be at a higher risk, who have the idea that it’s just a sport for rich people.” Although the kids didn’t get to go to New York, at least one of them was relieved that they weren’t there during a hurricane. “I feel kinda safe here,” explained 10-year-old Jensyn Blouin, of West Palm Beach, taking a break from a practice. “We were gonna be taking the subway around, and they’re supposed to get flooded. So this is OK.”
Related articles
- U.S. Open on hold as Hurricane Irene threatens New York (reuters.com)
- Hurricane Irene plays havoc with sports schedule (sportsillustrated.cnn.com)
- U.S. Open prepares for approaching Hurricane Irene (cbssports.com)
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