Gilford’s Advantage Kids wins New England Tennis Award

GILFORD — The U.S. Tennis Association of New England honored Gilford-based nonprofit tennis association Advantage Kids with its National Junior and Tennis Learning Chapter of the Year award on Saturday, Nov. 4 at its annual awards ceremony.

Advantage Kids, which enriches the lives of more than 1,000 Granite State youth through tennis and yoga, received the award as part of USTA New England’s 2023 Tennis Weekend event at The Verve Hotel in Natick, Massachusetts.

"This recognition fuels our passion and reaffirms our commitment to nurturing the transformative power of tennis in young lives,” said Advantage Kids Executive Director Dawn Dragon. “It's a beautiful acknowledgment that what we do is more than a game—it's a driving force for positive change, community building and personal growth for all kids."

Advantage Kids partners with schools and tennis organizations around New Hampshire to ensure all instructional programming for new and beginner players is provided at no cost.

Advantage Kids is part of the USTA’s NJTL Network, a group of more than 270 youth development organizations that offer free or low-cost tennis and education programming to under-resourced youth. The network was co-founded by Arthur Ashe in 1969.

The award honors the chapter that showed an exemplary commitment to the sport of tennis through educational programming and community partnerships.

In the past three years, Advantage Kids has partnered with the youth-led organization, Rally for Tennis, which raises funds to assist New Hampshire youth in living out their tennis dreams.

Their flagship fundraising event this year raised more than $26,000 for the organization. To learn more about Advantage Kids, visit advantagekids.net/.