The Pauls Valley Parks Foundation received a $10,000 grant from the Oklahoma Tennis Foundation Monday to continue renovations to the tennis courts in Wacker Park.
“We’re very grateful for the Oklahoma Tennis Foundation’s support for this project,” Pauls Valley Parks Foundation Board President Kahn Nirschl said.
The Oklahoma Tennis Foundation is dedicated to promoting a love of tennis all over the state, with the goal of reaching all 77 counties. To accomplish that goal, the group focuses on offering free tennis clinic events around the state, scholarship awards and grants to local tennis organizations.
“However we can help support that charge,” said Oklahoma Tennis Foundation Grant Chair James McCullough, who was in Pauls Valley Monday to present the award.
The foundation awarded $100,000 in grants to communities around the state last year and they are hoping to expand on that this year, according to McCullough.
“This fits perfectly with our goals and is exactly the type of thing we want to invest in,” McCullough said of the Pauls Valley tennis court restoration project.
McCullough also spent time with PV Parks Foundation board members Monday morning, discussing possibilities for future tennis programs and sharing his experience from other court restoration projects.
The PV Parks Foundation is a non-profit organization with the mission of preserving and enhancing the Pauls Valley Parks system.
In 2022 the PV Parks Foundation completed phase one of a restoration project for the Wacker Park tennis courts, which included resurfacing four courts on the east side of Chickasaw Street. They are currently fundraising for phase two of that project, which will entail renovating eight additional courts on the west side of Chickasaw Street.
With some items such as windbreaks and shadow lines for pickleball or 10 and under play still needed for the courts resurfaced in phase one, Nirschl said the Parks Foundation Board will need to decide where the new grant can best be used in the renovation process.
