Tennis nonprofit delays racket giveaway following regional covid-19 uptick

Anup Nadesan and Joseph Bonfiglio started their tennis nonprofit, My Ground Strokes, about a year ago, and they were getting ready for a summer full of activity just as the covid-19 pandemic began ramping up.

In April, Nadesan decided to bake nut bread and distribute it to front-line health care workers.

People enjoyed the loaves so much that he began selling then as a fundraiser for his nonprofit, which provides free tennis training to special needs and disadvantaged children, and children of veterans, ages 8 to 13.

The fundraiser netted $3,000, and that money in turn was used to buy rackets for My Ground Strokes participants.

That giveaway was supposed to happen Saturday. However, the recent uptick in covid-19 cases in the region forced Murryville’s Nadesan, 17, to push the giveaway back to September. He said it was unfortunate, but it does offer some upside.

“It gives us a little more time to get things organized and draw in more people,” Nadesan said. “Hopefully in September we’ll be able to get them rackets, and they’ll be able to use them right away.”

The delay also gives Nadesan and the My Ground Strokes team — which includes Bonfiglio and Franklin Regional students Shrey Ramesh, Advait Kulkarni, Vishal Thulasiram and Adi Arkalgud — time to create an instructional video series for the MGS website.

“I wanted to create a database of videos that we’re calling MGS Academy,” Nadesan said. “It’ll be videos on things like grips, forehand technique. That’s really the only type of instruction we can do right now.”

My Ground Strokes is its own nonprofit, but falls under the umbrella of East Suburban Citizen Advocacy, a fellow Murrysville nonprofit dedicated to providing a network of support to people with development disabilities.

“It’s something new,” said ESCA Advocate Lisa Hnath. “Usually we have volunteers of all ages, but they’re helping with something that we started, or that another adult started.

“But to have teenagers taking the lead on it is something unique.”

For his part, Nadesan has gotten on the court a few times this summer — tennis being one of the few sports where social distancing is already in place — with two players on opposite sides of a sizable court. “I’ve been playing a little here and there, but I also have to be careful to social distance.

“I’m looking forward to the giveaway in September, when, hopefully, it’ll be a little more clear.”

For more on My Ground Strokes, see MyGroundStrokes.org.