{"id":59,"date":"2016-07-01T04:09:34","date_gmt":"2016-07-01T04:09:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nehsjc.org\/therevolutionary\/?p=59"},"modified":"2016-07-02T11:36:58","modified_gmt":"2016-07-02T15:36:58","slug":"community","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nehsjc.org\/therevolutionary\/community\/","title":{"rendered":"Learning To Love In The  Community"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Coleshnie Corgelas<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The sound of balls hitting racquets and the shuffling of sneakers are some of the sounds one hears at the Franklin Park Tennis Association (FPTA) classes.<\/p>\n<p>FPTA organizes community events and teaches tennis to young and old. The program also grooms participants to become coaches for their tennis program.<\/p>\n<p>In 1998, a group of tennis players and friends worked to renovate the tennis courts at Franklin Park\u2019s Shattuck Grove site, in the process becoming the FPTA. Now,18 years later, the FPTA has found success in bringing families and friends together through community programs open to all age groups.<\/p>\n<p>Director Jeannine Laing said the program fosters a sense of community. The FPTA offers events low cost or free to help give underrepresented families an opportunity to participate.<\/p>\n<p>The program does not just improve athletic ability, but it also resonates with important social skills,said Coach Dave Copley.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/drive.google.com\/file\/d\/0B9yinpIOuj2eSklycjczRmRfMDA\/preview\" width=\"960\" height=\"540\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe take the kids out of line and put them in pairs,\u201d said Copley. \u201cThere&#8217;s a give and take exchange with them and the other person.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Adults are also welcome to join in on the fun. Participants learn basic tennis skills as well as how to make a connection with each other.<\/p>\n<p>Laing said the FPTA has opened doors for many people. She added, \u201cA lot of the adult participants include women who were not encouraged to play sports as kids.\u201d This new experience can evoke many emotions.<\/p>\n<p>Laing recalled a woman who had participated in the program. \u201cShe admitted to me, after her first tournament, that she lost her match and went home and cried.\u201d Laing said.<\/p>\n<p>Laing, who participated in the program and has a daughter who also was in the tennis program, said the FPTA program is meaningful.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s meaningful to me that we\u2019re here and that it has an effect on people, whether it&#8217;s tennis or otherwise,\u201d Laing said. \u201cThat\u2019s what makes it really meaningful to see those challenges and triumphs.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The program is funded by the United States Tennis Association. As a result, the FPTA is able to provide tennis classes and other community events helping the development of sports, tennis and the community.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMost our programs are free because we\u2019re trying to build up the community,\u201d Copley said. \u201cTennis is a great vehicle to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>By Coleshnie Corgelas The sound of balls hitting racquets and the shuffling of sneakers are some of the sounds one hears at the Franklin Park <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/nehsjc.org\/therevolutionary\/community\/\" title=\"Learning To Love In The  Community\"><span>Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":109,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-59","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7G3EK-X","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/nehsjc.org\/therevolutionary\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/pg8_tennis.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nehsjc.org\/therevolutionary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nehsjc.org\/therevolutionary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nehsjc.org\/therevolutionary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nehsjc.org\/therevolutionary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nehsjc.org\/therevolutionary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/nehsjc.org\/therevolutionary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":254,"href":"https:\/\/nehsjc.org\/therevolutionary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59\/revisions\/254"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nehsjc.org\/therevolutionary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nehsjc.org\/therevolutionary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nehsjc.org\/therevolutionary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nehsjc.org\/therevolutionary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}