September 3, 2010 | Read Time: 2 minutes
Who said kids can’t raise big bucks?
In the last five years, students of the Austin Tennis Academy, which annually trains more than 100 tennis players aged 5 to 18, has raised more than $350,000 for A Glimmer of Hope, a Texas charity that provides clean water and other necessities to needy people in Ethiopia.
The young tennis players are well on their way to reaching a goal of raising $1-million over the next few years by undertaking an annual campaign from June through November. The players participate in the campaign, called “Playing for Glimmer,” by asking their parents and friends to give a certain amount for every tennis match they play or by asking for a one-time donation.
The tennis academy’s relationship with A Glimmer of Hope began after the charity’s founder gave a presentation about its work in Ethiopia to students at the academy.
Josh Hagar, one of the players, decided that he wanted to raise money to help the organization and persuaded some of his peers to join him. The academy’s chief executive decided to support their idea by establishing the campaign and setting the $1-million goal.
So far, the students have raised enough money to complete 28 projects to provide clean water, including a reservoir that serves 10,000 people, and to build two elementary schools in Ethiopia. Some students, including Josh Hagar, have visited Ethiopia to see the progress there.
Last year, the tennis students’ fund-raising efforts got a boost from a new online platform built by A Glimmer of Hope that allows them to post their own fund-raising pages and to create their own videos there, thus enabling them to more easily ask friends and family for donations. Josh Hagar’s page, for example, is seeking $10,000 this year to help an Ethiopian village add a new health clinic and includes a video he created.
On September 1, to kick off the fall portion of the campaign, another student named Breck Spencer organized a “Water Walk” to demonstrate the difficulty that Ethiopians have in getting access to clean water.
The walkers, including 54 students and eight of their coaches, strapped jerrycans of water to their backs and embarked on a mile-long hike in temperatures over 100 degrees to simulate the daily treks to get water that are common in Ethiopia. Even though the walk did not involve a formal solicitation, the event raised $16,280.
