On Sunday, Oct. 9, the Seattle University men's and women's tennis teams volunteered with ACEing Autism, a family-run organization founded in 2008 by Richard Spurling & Dr. Shafali Jeste in Boston, Mass., with the mission of enhancing the lives of children and families with autism through tennis.
"ACEing Autism is an amazing program that connects kids with autism with tennis and the physical and social benefits that come along with playing this great sport," said SU Head Coach Adam Reeb. "It's really fun and rewarding for our student-athletes to be involved with this program, and we had a great time helping teach tennis to these wonderful kids."
The Redhawk teams worked with children at the Tennis Center at Sand Point, teaching a variety of activities including hand-eye coordination, racquet skills, volleys, groundstrokes and group games.
Seattle U senior Kailyn Skjonsby is a program director with ACEing Autism and helped coordinate the event.
"Seeing the (kids') joy and happiness over a well-struck ball was great," said Reeb. "I'm really proud of all our student-athletes for their help with this program, and I am super proud of Kailyn for taking over as the Program Director for the Seattle chapter. She's really taken a great leadership role in this program, and she is the epitome of a caring student-athlete who gives back."
For more information on ACEing Autism, visit http://aceingautism.org/locations/seattle-wa/.