Last October I wrote about the Balboa Warrior Athlete Program and how Geoff Griffin and Marla Knox are making this happen at Balboa Park in San Diego, filling the program with life and giving wounded service men and women a great time on the tennis courts: Tennis program healing wounds for Balboa Warriors. Today I learned that the San Diego District Tennis Association will receive a U.S. Olympic Committee Grant to provide enhanced sport programming for wounded, ill and injured service members and veterans. Here is the official press release:
The U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC) announced the San Diego District Tennis Association was awarded $15,000 provided by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs in support of Paralympic sport and physical activity programs for wounded, ill and injured service members and veterans of the armed forces.
Since 2009, the San Diego District Tennis Association, in collaboration with Naval Medical Center San Diego (NMCSD) and the Balboa Tennis Club, has provided free tennis clinics twice a month to more than 200 wounded, injured and ill service members and veterans from all the military services as part of NMCSD’s Balboa Warrior Athlete Program (BWAP).
The tennis program has made a positive impact in the lives of wounded, ill and injured service members and veterans. NMCSD’s Recreational Therapist, Marla Knox, reported, “Therapeutically, tennis has helped our wounded, ill, and injured service members work on eye-hand coordination, balance, endurance, ability to transfer weight, etc. Besides the physical benefits, tennis enables the patients to learn a new sport, promotes socialization, decreases stress and anxiety, and helps with re-integration into the community.”
The BWAP tennis program has been recognized nationally, and is the model for similar tennis programs for wounded, ill and injured service members and veterans that recently have been established at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas, and at the Charlie Norwood VA Medical Center in Augusta, Georgia.
USOC CEO Scott Blackmun said, “Through the USOC/Veterans Affairs partnership, many community programs have been able to expand their programming and provide increased opportunities for veterans to participate.” The San Diego District Tennis Association will use the USOC grant to accommodate more military-affiliated wounded, ill and injured players in the BWAP tennis program at Balboa Tennis Club. The Association also will use the grant to help defray expenses for wounded, ill and injured service members and veterans from across the country to travel to San Diego and participate in a three day tennis camp in May 2012 at Balboa Tennis Club.
For more information, please contact the San Diego District Tennis Association, 619-299-8647, sddta@yahoo.com.
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