Celebrating 30 Years at Grassroots Tennis and Education
Giving Back | written by: PAMELA DEY VOSSLER | photos by: BAMBI RIEGEL | riegelpictureworks.com
Front row (from left): U14 Grassroots players Yasmin Gutierrez, Brennan Figuereo, Rhea Sharma, Cybil Jean Fils, Alex Gutierrez, Jacquline Abella and Matias Naranjo-Celis, back row (from left): Grassroots volunteers Maarten Eenkema van Dijk, Wright Ferguson, Roy Anderson and Guy Riegel, Grassroots Director of Tennis David Kimani and volunteer Jay Bennett
IF YOU WANT TO LIFT YOUNG PEOPLE to their full potential and deliver them to the best future possible, take a page from the Grassroots Tennis and Education playbook. Grassroots is a Norwalk-based nonprofit for kids in at-risk areas. Through free tennis lessons and education support, it gives them ways to believe in themselves, to feel valued; to see possibilities for themselves that may be beyond their field of vision. And it gives them the support they need to go after the good stuff, in a way that is true to who they are.
It’s what Grassroots has done for more than 6,000 five-to-17-year-olds in the 30 years since Art Goldblatt, an Ivy League educated lawyer, first walked the projects in Norwalk in 1995 with some rackets, a bunch of balls, a bag of bagels and a stubborn conviction that tennis—the sport he loved—could change the lives of kids living there. After all, they had courts—though at the time they were used for less salubrious activities and grass grew between cracks in the asphalt. So why not teach them the sport intended for them and see where the chips fell?
With his near savant powers of persuasion, Art compelled kids to participate.
“We didn’t know what tennis was,” said TC Passarelle. He picked up one of Art’s rackets in 1996 when he was just six years old and never let go. It changed his life.
“Most of the friends that I joined Grassroots with all went down very different paths than what I am on,” explained TC, now a father of two and the fulltime manager of tennis operations for Grassroots. He is also the coach of the boy’s varsity tennis team at Norwalk’s Brien McMahon High School. “They are either incarcerated or, unfortunately, aren’t here anymore.” TC played on his high school tennis team, taught at Grassroots, graduated from high school, went to college, earned his professional tennis certification and has been a pro in the area ever since. He’s worked at Woodway Country Club, New Canaan Racquet Club and Chelsea Piers.
Jacquline Abella with Jay Bennett
Art, who passed away in 2021, got volunteers to help too, including a broad swath of Darien’s tennis faithful who have long supported Grassroots as board members, coaches, tutors and more.
Roy Anderson, a top player and longtime member of the Tokeneke Club, has volunteered at Grassroots from the beginning – as a coach, for many years on the board of directors and now as chair of the Advisory Board. He still coaches twice a week.
“I joined Grassroots in 1995. It was just hitting with the kids,” Roy recalled. “Then it got going and the kids were very good. They were in high school, but a lot of them couldn’t make their tennis team because of their grades. So Grassroots brought in life skills and education,” he continued.
All Grassroots players now graduate from high school, boosted by tutoring and education support programs put in place at Grassroots in 2008, and expanded in 2015 when Grassroots secured a building at 11 Ingalls Avenue in Norwalk. This gave the kids a dedicated place to study and get help. They make the grades they need to be on their high school teams and to be paid coaches within the Grassroots Junior Coaching program—launched when Grassroots realized they were losing players to minimum wage jobs. It gave them the income they needed, added incentive to study and a way to learn responsibility and leadership.
(From left): David Kimani, Alex Gutierrez, Brennan Figuereo and Roy Anderson at Grassroots U14 practice
Often, Grassroots players captain their high school teams. Many continue on to college …and every one of them receives the gift of opportunity—to learn a sport, to discover they can excel at it and in school, to become an instructor themselves—a role model for the younger kids, to lead—to know they can lead, and to connect to futures they may not have known were available to them 30 years ago.
“Grassroots gives these kids the chance to chase a dream they maybe never knew existed,” agreed Rachel Greenspon, a Grassroots board member and co-chair of the Grassroots 30th Anniversary Gala held in late April at Wee Burn Country Club. A former college player (Georgetown), she and her husband are raising three sons in Darien.
“I’m most impressed by the fact that these kids are choosing to do this on their own,” said Jay Bennett, another longtime Darien resident and tennis player who coaches the U14 group at Grassroots, when he’s not recruiting others to volunteer with him.
“It’s an amazing program the way it’s changed lives for the better,” added Roy.
While those early Grassroots players sometimes made it, sometimes didn’t, Art never gave up. He took the kids as they came.
“Art didn’t care who you were outside of the tennis court. He never came with an expectation of us being a certain way. He just asked us to be ourselves and show it on the tennis court,” TC explained.
“A lot of the time, people weren’t coming into these places and actually trying to get to know the kids. Art wasn’t afraid. He just told you to grab a racket, hit a ball, and that’s it,” said TC. “It’s still that way. Our number one thing is when you walk through the door, be exactly who you are,” said TC of the safe space Grassroots has become for the kids it serves.
Art knew that for kids to have a chance, they need to be given one.
“There is no kid who should be overlooked,” said David Kimani, Grassroots associate executive director and tennis director who Art hired in 2000, “because you don’t know what potential they have in that body, in that mind. The best thing is expose them, give them opportunity, and let them run with it,” he continued, echoing one of Art’s core beliefs.
A native of Kenya who played #1 for the University of Nairobi tennis team, David went on to coach and manage the Junior International Tennis Federation Africa team from 1994 to 1997. He came to Grassroots after completing his masters degree in sports management at Springfield College to earn some money before returning home. Unable to resist the pull he felt to the program, he never left. He has been the beating heart of Grassroots ever since, as it has grown from a handful of kids who played in a six-week summer camp and whenever else they could, to the 250 who play and compete in organized programs year-round now.
“David Kimani, he’s special, he has this lovely peacefulness and aura about him, and the kids flock to him. He is patient and kind and a great instructor,” said Jay.
“Grassroots connects the children of this underserved, low-income housing area in Norwalk with an accessible and dynamic sport as well as an academic support system,” observed Yvette Eenkema van Dijk who, with her husband Pieter (both longtime Darien tennis players and supporters of Grassroots), is funding a bubble to enclose four of the Grassroots courts – the cracks and errant grass replaced long ago with a post-tension, concrete surface – so that they can be used throughout the winter as well. “Grassroots helps them create healthy habits and friendships in addition to developing sportsmanship and leadership on the court and in the classroom. It is a win-win situation!” she continued. “We are happy and grateful that we can contribute to that.”
Alex Gutierrez and Roy Anderson at Grassroots U14 practice
“I’ve been involved with Grassroots since the early days,” said Harlan Stone, another top player in Darien who served on the Board and, with his wife Susan, launched the annual Play in May tennis tournament to benefit Grassroots. It is still going strong after 25 years. “We’ve come a long way from humble beginnings,” he continued. “I always say there have been two great loves in my life: my family and tennis. It has literally given me everything—my career, my closest friends, my health and incredible enjoyment. My hope is that Grassroots kids can experience the kinds of opportunities and fulfillment the sport has provided me,” added Harlan who was inducted into the New England Tennis Hall of Fame in 2023 for his accomplishments in the sport.
“I really believe in the mission of Grassroots, which is not just teaching kids how to play tennis, it’s teaching kids how to navigate life,” said current board member Maarten Eenkema van Dijk, a structural engineer who got involved to help oversee the purchase and installation of the bubble his parents are donating.
Grassroots is a story of certainty, of belief, of solving problems as they arise, with the same kind of never-give-up approach the kids learn on the court. It is a professor of patience, leadership, sportsmanship and responsibility for kids as it expands their world view. Most of all, it is a story of futures, and releasing the unlimited potential contained within every child—one ball, one bagel, one point at a time.
To learn more about Grassroots, visit grassrootste.org.
