L.Jay Tenenbaum: 30 Years and Counting
L. Jay Tenenbaum knows a thing or two about Youth Tennis Advantage, a lot of it dating back to the mid 1960s, and considering his 30 years of enduring service as a member of YTA’s board of directors, there’s no surprise why.
L. Jay Tenenbaum’s dedication to YTA came about from his relationship with the Youth Tennis Foundation, an organization that eventually became YTA.
“Originally before Youth Tennis Foundation, it was known as the East Palo Alto Tennis and Touring club,” recalls Tenenbaum. “Then in 1988, the YTA was created when the Youth Tennis Foundation merged with the National Junior Tennis League (NJTL). Though admittedly, it was from an initial specific intention of allowing my good friend Ed Osgood use of my tennis court that brought us together to discuss Osgood’s collaboration with NJTL and mine with the Youth Tennis Foundation, “according to Tenenbaum who describes long time friend Osgood as an extraordinary person who has been invaluable and committed to YTA through the years.
“However, each of us soon realized that the tournaments I had been involved with to help raise funds for the Youth Tennis Foundation dating as far back as the 1960s, and Osgood’s relationship with the NJTL had been operating concurrently and for very , very similar purpose. “Essentially our respective objective was rooted in helping poor children experience tennis, and from there we merged to form YTA and immediately combined site locations to spawn 10 different sites across the Bay Area.
Tenenbaum story underscores an important factor in the evolution on YTA, which is that neither the Youth Tennis Foundation nor the NJTL was interested in competing against each other. Both opted instead to join its two boards for the purpose of providing more tennis opportunities to larger numbers of youth in many more cities than either of them could have achieved on its own.
With YTAs formation, Tenenbaum believes that the Bank of the West Classic fundraiser for the organization was made possible. “Unlike the ballet, opera, or the symphony which each has a natural pool of resources to seek funds from, YTAs kids are from poor neighborhoods,” he explained. “Since there really isn’t any fundamental support for lessons and equipment, no constituency to call back on for support, corporate donors and fundraisers like Bank of the West and have been crucial to YTAs longevity and the children we’ve been able to reach.”
With numerous active years under his belt, and more than 30 of those dedicated to tennis and YTA, Tenenbaum looks forward to continue working with board members and the executive director of the YTA , he said he believes that fundraiser’s can work effectively with organization’s such as YTA.
“I think our new executive director is a real go getter, she seems to understand how big fundraising can lead to needed funds for grants; I will be delighted to see the organization grow and evolve so even more kids and teens enjoy tennis,” Tenenbaum added.