Hillcrest High School Courts

Hillcrest High School opened its doors to students of Elmvale Acres, an Ottawa-South community, in 1961. The school grounds were home to four hard courts, a wonderful feature to bring tennis into the area. Fast forward over 40 years to 2003, and the courts that were once in full use no longer held such hope and life, as they were neglected, buried under leaves. Weeds and grass were growing out of the cement, the net posts were tilted and the nets themselves nowhere to be found. Hillcrest's courts were unplayable, unsafe and the school had no funding to invest in their repair.

Danielle Smith, Founder

​Danielle Smith was about to retire from her career at CHEO as a nurse in the neo-natal intensive care unit. Her dream was to start up a tennis program that would give children and adults a chance to fall in love with tennis, while also helping to improve poverty in the community. She noticed the run-down courts at Hillcrest High School, as it was almost across the street from CHEO, and initiated a meeting with the principal. Danielle was able to secure a grant from the Ontario Trillium Foundation, and received $33,000 to resurface the courts. From there, she opened the Hillcrest Tennis Academy, which is now known as the Ottawa Tennis Community Centre. Since 2003, Danielle has gone on to receive various grants that have allowed her to continue to grow her organization and bring her dreams to life.

Ridgemont High School Courts
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Ridgemont High School is another secondary school that opened its doors shortly before Hillcrest. It still serves students in the Alta Vista area of the Ottawa-South community. Like Hillcrest, Ridgemont had two hard courts that had become neglected over the years. Shortly after Danielle oversaw the resurfacing of the four Hillcrest courts, she applied for a grant to put money towards Ridgemont and was able to bring the two courts back to its beautiful blue and green. The famous vines around the fences that were once overgrown and invasive, now provide privacy and add character to the courts. 

A Love of Tennis

In 2012, the Academy received charitable status, and Danielle created A Love of Tennis, a second non-profit tennis organization. Since then, she has touched the lives of over 12,000 kids through the organization's program!

A Love of Tennis is a tennis program free of cost to children and youth aged 6-18 in Ottawa. Our Hillcrest and Ridgemont courts are used for the organization, and all necessary equipment is provided for our participants. A Love of Tennis promotes lifelong health and leadership through the development of tennis skills, physical literacy, and core values.

Embedded in the program are our 7 core values of optimism, knowledge, honesty, excellence, accountability, respect, and teamwork. Our children and youth are taught the important meanings behind each value, and how to put them in action through active modelling.

A Love of Tennis also includes team tennis, which allows every participant the opportunity to play matches as part of a team, while practicing their tennis and teamwork skills. All participants are assessed on their physical literacy so that instructors can determine their group's strengths and areas for improvement, which ensures they are supported in the future development of their skills. Feedback cards are also given to participants at the end of the season, acting as a record of what skills they have acquired, what they can look forward to practicing next year and a personal note from their instructor. 

A Love of Tennis has impacted many lives, and will continue to grow in the future.
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Our Impact to Date

Volunteers have contributed over 10,000 hours, 6 tennis professionals have been certified through Tennis Canada after contributing to our programs, all 6 of our courts have been painted with junior lines, and most importantly, we have established a team tennis league for girls.

Here is a full list of our accomplishments thus far:

• 6 hard courts refurbished across two school sites

• Junior lines added to all 6 courts

• A Love of Tennis, Tennis on the Streets, and All-Girl League programs, all for youth aged 6-18

• Provided equipment and training to 10 Ottawa schools to incorporate tennis into their physical education

• 10,000 volunteer hours put forth by community members

• 6 pros certified as instructors by Tennis Canada

• 12,000 children and youth who have participated in our programs

• 85% retention rate of participants

• Improved physical literacy scores across 100% of participants​*

Many of our leaders have gone on to university and are establishing themselves in successful careers!

We have also implemented our second program, Tennis on the Streets, which brings programming to various areas in Ottawa where kids have no access to courts or lessons. Two important features of both programs are our physical literacy and core value components. If you have never heard of physical literacy before, do not worry! Just like how English literacy refers to an individual's competencies in comprehension, fluency, and vocabulary, *physical literacy refers to an individual's running, jumping, and locomotor competencies. Physical literacy assessments allow us to determine our participants' strengths and areas for improvement, to work towards an increased physical literacy score every year. This puts our kids in a position to lead healthier and more active lifestyles.

Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic

When the COVID-19 pandemic began in March 2020, it had taken away two precious summers of our meaningful program. Not only did we miss our wonderful participants and being with everyone on the courts, but our community had to go without a program that truly changes lives. 

As a non-profit organization, our services rely on funding from grants, donations, and fundraisers. Without programs, grants were hard to come by. Without programs, word of mouth was less likely to go around, thus limiting the donations. The financial impact that the pandemic had on families inhibited the ability for communities to give donations. 

Recently, in exchange for your donations, we have opened our courts for rentals/memberships as a fundraising initiative, to provide access to the courts. We also have a special bracelet fundraiser that will be ongoing year-round. 

​Our Dreams for the Future

​A Love of Tennis still has many dreams and goals that have yet to be achieved. Returning to the courts with our programming and continuing to expand our programs within Ottawa are short-term visions. Other goals we have in mind include: developing more meaningful programming, resurfacing more abandoned courts, building our facilities, reaching outside of Ottawa, receiving more funding and be in a position to give back to our youth. We are working on various fundraising initiatives to help pave our way towards this dream for our communities. 

A dream very close to our hearts at A Love of Tennis is continuing to expand our women's and girls' leagues in support of equity and leadership in sport. Our efforts are in line with Tennis Canada and National Bank's Girls. Set. Match initiative. Click the link to learn more about gender equity in tennis!