On January 31, 2014 we attended the 4th Annual Gala for Kids and Community Event held by the Sportsmen’s Tennis and Enrichment Center (STEC) at Lombardo’s in Randolph, MA. A night of great conversation about all sorts of topics including tennis, of course, was supported by Boston’s new mayor Marty Walsh who attended along with newly-appointed Boston Police Commissioner William Evans, members of the Boston Police Tennis Program, and our friend Bing Broderick, the executive director of Haley House, which runs one of our favorite bakery-cafes, another important mission-driven institution in Boston.
Sportsmen’s, the first African-American nonprofit tennis club in the nation, is located in Harambee Park, a part of Boston’s Emerald Necklace in the city’s Dorchester neighborhood. Created in 1961, Sportsmen’s is a diverse tennis club where children and adults of all racial, cultural and economic backgrounds and playing levels are welcomed. With a variety of impressive educational programs and expert tennis instruction, STEC is one of our favorite places to be when we are not working.