Celebrating 12 years and 20,000 young tennis players

This article was created for Victoria Foundation, and produced independently by Capital Daily. It was approved by Victoria Foundation before it was published.

When retired physician Sy Silverberg first thought about doing something to give back to the community, he never expected the path it would take him on.

“My wife and I were looking for some opportunities to give back to the community. We looked at a bunch of volunteer positions, and nothing really appealed to us. So, she suggested, “you love tennis so much, isn’t there something you could do with tennis?” Silverberg said. “Immediately I thought, well, yeah, there’s got to be a lot of kids out there who can’t afford to learn to play the game. Why don’t we get them together and give them some lessons?”

The idea was simple: provide equipment and tennis lessons for kids who would not otherwise be able to afford them. Silverberg, an avid tennis player, wanted to cultivate that passion in young people and encourage them to put away their screens.

However, tennis lessons are expensive, and Silverberg needed to figure out how to provide these lessons for the children. He approached several recreation centres and other organizations in the Greater Victoria area with the idea. The reaction surprised him.

“The response was so great. Other community centres heard about us, and it just kept growing. We’ve since expanded, and we’re now working with a bunch of social agencies, newcomer agencies, and Indigenous agencies,” Silverberg said. “This project was meant to be. I mean, every year, fundraising is a bit challenging, but that’s really the only challenge that we’ve had.”

The most surprising part for Silverberg was how quickly everything started growing. The program took off in its first year, providing tennis lessons to around 2,000 children yearly. Recently, the program passed the 20,000 participant mark.

The Society for Kids at Tennis partners with community organizations to identify the children who would benefit the most from the program. Family income and other needs are considered. Many are the children of newcomers, and recently the program started providing tennis lessons for children with intellectual and physical disabilities.

“We work in partnership with all these organizations, and we figure they know their kids better than we do,” Silverberg said. “They select the kids, they put together the groups, and we show up with instructors and equipment for everybody. The kids who show real interest or real promise, we let them keep the equipment.”

The program currently employs 50 Tennis Canada-certified instructors as well as volunteers. One of the challenges is finding enough tennis courts to accommodate everyone, especially indoors during the winter. The program’s sponsors include the Victoria Foundation, Jump Start, and Canadian Tire, among others. It also accepts private donations.

Silverberg is now 83 years old and has stepped back from many of his previous roles in the program, except some administration and fundraising. While he does not feel he can take the initiative beyond Victoria, he has inspired others to expand the Society for Kids at Tennis’s vision to make tennis accessible to all.

For more information, please visit www.kidsattennis.ca.