Girl Power at New Canaan Racquet Club NGT NEWS

Ngt News
Brought to you by the NGT Kids
Girl Power at New Canaan Racquet Club
Jan., Feb.
2014 issue
New Canaan Racquet Club Girls Court Addresses More than Tennis
By Coach Mary Stichter
Our Norwalk Grassroots Tennis Girls Club is a smashing success and we
couldn’t be more grateful to our funders for making it happen. Every Monday,
Coaches Mary Stichter, Martha Connolly, and Susan Lovejoy plus two New
Canaan High School girls greet the Norwalk kids at New Canaan Racquet Club
as they come off the van. The first half hour is spent dividing our group of girls
into those who have homework and getting them started on their assignments
with assistance if needed. Those who don’t have homework go straight out
onto the court where we offer an hour and a half of warm-ups, tennis instruction and games at the end. The last half hour is snack and chat where we have
a healthy snack and informally discuss a predetermined subject. Past subjects
include nutrition, diversity, etiquette (life and tennis), importance of thank you
notes, and leadership qualities. Just before Christmas, we took our girls club to
see the Nutcracker Ballet with tickets that had been donated by the CT Ballet
Company. It was an amazing treat for our girls. Really fun to see how the existence of our Winter Tennis Young Girls’ Club results in so many positive
Contributors/
Editors:
Antonio
Passerelle
(College: )
Alyah Fresnel
(High School: Fr.)
Sehvrine Lezeau
(High School:
Soph. )
Sraavani Akarapu
(High School Fr. )
messages and experiences for our kids … way beyond just improving at
a sport.
“Courage, determination, pride...that's
what little girls are
made
of.”
-- Author Unknown
Kaylee picking up balls.
Girls’ Club attending the CT Ballet
Player of the Month: Raphy Benjamin
Raphy Benjamin was chosen as our Player of the Month. Raphy’s effort to improve in tennis has motivated the
rest of us. On court, Raffy’s ground strokes have pace and accuracy. He religiously comes to practice and plays
#1 or #2 singles for the competitive U10 team. Off court, Raphy always does his homework and is focused on
getting good grades. He stands up for himself and doesn’t let others bring him down. When someone says that
he can’t do something, he proves them wrong by trying even harder. Let’s get to know our new Player of the
Month, Raphy Benjamin.
What does NGT mean to you? A lot. It is something special. Having fun playing tennis and helping me with
tutoring. Without NGT, I would be bored. I have a lot of friends at NGT. If I was in trouble, I would go to
NGT because I know that they would help me out.
What is something people don’t know about you? I love to read. The Kings of Origami Yoda is my favorite
book at the moment. It’s interesting how the lead guy solves other people’s problems to prevent them from
getting in trouble and getting embarrassed.
What is your favorite thing to do? To learn history. I like the Revolutionary War, in particular, the Stamp Act,
the Boston Massacre and Lexington and Concord.
Who is your favorite tennis player and why? Nadal because I like his fore hand and back hand. I learn to hit hard
by watching Nadal.
What do you want to be when you grow up? I don’t know yet but I maybe would like to
be a famous tennis player.
Iasiah Sena:
Meet our New Executive
Director
Rick Swift
Rick became Executive Director of NGT in
January 2014. Originally from Philadelphia,
Rick began playing tennis at age 6 through the
Philadelphia Youth Tennis Program. He later
played varsity tennis for the U. of Virginia and
after graduating with a degree in Education
became the Head Racquets Pro at Greenwich
CC. Later, Rick was General Sales Mgr. of
White Birch Paper Company for 30 years
before retiring in 2008. He currently resides in
Stamford, CT. Welcome to the NGT family!
Life Skills by Vickie Green
Life skills is held at the Learning Center at Roodner Court. It meets twice a week for an hour. Second and third graders come for an hour to learn social skills such as proper ways to intro-­
duce yourself, correct hygiene, how to behave in a classroom setting, respect, listening, etc. The kids love the program and are flying through the curricu-­
lum. NGT plans to have a gradu-­
ation party at the end of the se-­
mester. Three dedicated coach-­
es lead the discussions—NGT Coach Vickie, Coach Cathy and Coach Marquis from Norwalk Housing Authority. A big thanks as we know how important Life Skills are to… well…. Life!
Honor Student
and Dancer
We are so proud of our honor
student Iasiah Sena. Iasiah is tutored twice a week by Miss
Kathy Weller and the results
have been amazing - all A’s and
one B. Not only is Iasiah smart,
but also she can dance. She was
given a dance scholarship from
the Walter Schalk School of
Dance. She will be performing in the end of season Dance Spectacular in
New Canaan to the songs, “I like how it feels” and “You’re the one that I
want” from Grease. Tickets will be on sale soon. We know you all want
to come so we’ll keep you posted!
Aladdin
Coach Debra treated NGT to see Aladdin
at the Middlesex Middle School. Sophia
Talwakar was in the production and she
was fantastic! You can see on our faces
that everyone had a great time.
Meet LEAP’s Maren Hersam and NGT’s Tayana Green !
Maren and Tayana have been working together for almost a month now and they are
having a great time getting to know each other while mastering multiplication! Tayana is
a fourth grader at the Side by Side charter school in Norwalk and Maren is a freshman
at Greenwich Academy. Maren is new to our LEAP tutoring program this year. The two
work very diligently every Wednesday and it really is so rewarding to see them figure
out math problems together, and they even find time at the end of each session to
have fun and get to know each other! A few weeks ago Tayana brought some props for
her upcoming school play and she, Maren, and Hadley (another LEAP tutor) all wore
them around the office and made us all smile. Maren is thrilled to be involved with
Grassroots and loves having the opportunity to tutor Tayana, and it seems that Tayana
is just as excited to be working with Maren!
Thursday’s Girl’s Club
Miracle Kave and Tamia Smith never miss Thursday’s Girls Club.
Today they tried to make Brownies in the microwave but found
out that the batter just explodes. So, instead of cooking it, they
ate the batter and Miracle admitted that it was good. No need to
cook it! The girls love being with Pia, Erica, Abby and Sarah and
they love their girl-only time. One time they made Origami balloons, another they made Chinese lanterns for Chinese New
Year. They paint their nails and love to do girls’ stuff. A big
thank you to Pia, Erica, Abby and Sarah for all the wonderful, creative activities and for the girl bonding!