GACTA Awarded the 2016 USTA Florida Member Organization of the Year

Community Tennis Volunteers, Players Honored at 2016 USTA Florida Annual Awards

From USTA Florida.

Gainesville Area Community Tennis Association
Their slogan is “Tennis for All, Strive for Success, Play for Life!”

USTA national stole some of the thunder of this award when the GACTA was announced as the national NJTL Chapter of the Year Award recipient, and presented with the award at the US Open. Now the Gainesville community tennis association receives the Florida honor.

This is the first Member Organization honor for the GACTA since its founding 12 years ago. It is the first for Gainesville since the Jonesville Tennis Center, which the GACTA’s advocacy brought about, received the award in 2010. Two outstanding components of the GACTA are the Aces in Motion tennis outreach program, and their middle school tennis program that has become a model for other communities.

During the 2015-2016 school year, Aces in Motion programming reached more than 400 under-served African-American youth each week at 12 different sites in Gainesville. The GACTA’s no-cut Middle School Tennis league completed its sixth season this spring, with approximately 150 students representing nine schools, both public and private.

The GACTA’s community partnerships and collaborations are too many to mention, as are the number of Kids Clubs, Play Days, JTT and other USTA program initiatives. If parents or players can’t pay a program fee, they scholarship players, or find another way to make it work. President Anne Koterba says, “We stress inclusiveness and diversity. We are becoming much more recognized in the community, not just as a tennis organization, but as a non-profit that is making a difference in Gainesville.”