2 students honored by Tennis Association
Jill Lawrence Credit: U.S. Tennis Association’s Long Island Region
Two Suffolk County students have been honored for their “exemplary volunteerism” by the U.S. Tennis Association’s Long Island Region.
Hauppauge High School senior Jill Lawrence and Aron Bursztyn, an eighth-grader at R.C. Murphy Junior High School in Stony Brook, each received the Junior Volunteer of the Year Award at the Long Island Region’s 28th annual awards dinner on May 2.
Lawrence, 17, has raised $3,900 during the past three years for the Developmental Disabilities Institute in Smithtown through “Tennis Serves the Community,” a round-robin tennis tournament open to junior players at Sportime Syosset. She also coordinated a raffle for autographed photos of tennis champions Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.
Bursztyn, 13, helped run community tennis clinics at World Gym Setauket, as well as a tennis charity event called “Strokes for Strokes” to benefit the Stroke Center at St. Charles Hospital in Port Jefferson. He also collected money to benefit pediatric cancer patients by designing and selling car magnets that read “Stomp Out Pediatric Cancer.”
“We want to emphasize that tennis is also about sportsmanship and giving back,” USTA Long Island Region President Jonathan Klee said. “Our board sees it as an honor and privilege to recognize those players and volunteers, especially young people, who spend countless hours giving back to their communities through tennis-oriented programming.”— MICHAEL R. EBERT
Michael R. Ebert is an education researcher and has worked for Newsday in various capacities since 2003. He was part of an 11-person team named as 2008 Pulitzer Prize finalists for investigative coverage of the LIRR's platform safety issues.
