Building awareness and money for congenital heart defects.
About the Event for 2008
The 3rd Annual Play for a Heart Tennis Fundraiser is set for Saturday, September 13th from 3pm to 8pm at the Inverness Colorado Athletic Club.Visit our Event Information and Registration page for the link to the payment and registration form. If you cannot attend, you can also donate any dollar amount through the Registration Form, simply locate the donation button at the bottom of the form.
The event is designed to raise awareness and money for congenital heart defect research. This disease is America's #1 birth defect, affecting nearly 1 out of every 100 births (40,000 children per year).
The proceeds raised by this fundraiser will benefit The Children's Hospital Heart Institute in Denver, Colorado, and will be directed to pediatric cardiology research.
Event Specifics
This year the format of the event will be different. We are taking on a round robin team tennis format and are targeting to have 12 teams. Each team will have 8 players, that will be evenly split between men and women. There will be a men's, women's and mixed round played during the fundraiser. Based on each team's average USTA rating, we will most likely break the 12 teams into two groups of 6 teams based on an average USTA level. Your team's average USTA level will determine which group you play in. All levels are welcome!The goal is to have each team sponsored. For example, your team's name could be "Team Tennis Plus" or "Team Children's Hospital" or "Team Schott". If you know of any company or individual that would be interested in sponsoring our event, please contact us. We also have other sponsorship opportunities as well.
Lastly, feel free to put together your own team of 8, sign up as an individual or with your partner. We will work hard to put you together with who you request to play with.
This format should be a lot of fun. Last year due to weather challenges we incorporated a team tennis theme to the event, which was a large success. Teams really got into it. They were strategizing and laughing at all the creative plays. All in good fun for a great cause.
Our Motivation
Our family has a passionate interest in Congenital Heart Disease due to our daughter, Libby. Libby was diagnosed with a very serious Congenital Heart Defect (CHD) at 8 weeks old. Since open-heart surgery was our only option for treatment, she under went a 5 hour procedure to reconstruct her heart. Now, she is an active and healthy 5 year-old; however, we have several more open-heart surgeries in her future as she outgrows her initial repair. Unfortunately, Libby's story is not uncommon, because CHD effects 40,000 each year in the U.S. 25 years ago, these children did not survive. As invasive as these surgeries are, we feel fortunate to be living in this modern era when medical advances allow many children with CHD to live relatively normal lives. Medical progress is being made daily, but this disease remains grossly under funded relative to the number of children impacted. Our hope and our passion is to raise funds that support research and medical advances to make these extremely invasive surgeries remnants of the past. We organized Play for a Heart to make a difference in the lives of CHD children.
