Staff Writer
The Caribou High Tennis Court fund-raising committee were recently informed the project would receive a grant in the amount of $50,000 from the U.S. Tennis Association. Caribou High School Athletic Director David Wakana received the welcomed news from the USTA representatives who informed him that the Caribou High School had been selected to receive a USTA Public Facility Funding grant for 20 per cent of the project costs. The grand funds will be distributed as the project progresses.
The notification continued with, “A goal of the USTA is to provide communities access to safe, appealing and functional tennis environments and we are happy to partner with Caribou Hgih School to achieve this goal in Caribou, Me. The essence of this initiative is to assist communities leverage their tennis facilities to promote lifelong healthy activity and improve their programming by advancing the latest tennis innovations for all program types.”
Wakana stated,” It really is a great thing that the United States Tennis Association thanks this project is worthy of such a large grand. It’s a tremendous help toward the project.”
With ground-breaking for the six-court tennis facility to take place in the very near future, Wakana, noted that currently cash funds for the project are at approximately $220,000. “If were able to get to a little over $300,000 we’ll be able to complete the facility including the six courts, lights and the bleachers.”
“We have been told that access to a grant from the USTA is very competitive,” said Wakana,”last year alone the association received over 900 applications with only 30 being funded. We consider ourselves very fortunate to have received this $50,000, this is the maximum grant amount given,” he added.
