Support Castor and Pollux's Tennis Camp for Refugee Children

Hi, our names are Castor Huang and Pollux Huang, and we are juniors at Taipei American School. Ever since we were 6 years old, we have been playing tennis weekly, practicing with coaches, and playing games with friends and family. This journey has led us to grow and develop as tennis players and athletes. Having this experience of playing tennis during our childhood and being fortunate enough to be able to start at such a young age and develop our passion for the sport, we dream of being able to share this opportunity with many others, especially those less fortune. This summer, starting in June, we’ll be traveling to Bucharest, Romania to volunteer with Malva, a nonprofit supporting around 400 Ukrainian refugee children.

As part of our efforts, we’re launching a free summer tennis camp for 36 to 40 Ukrainian refugee children on June 23, lasting 11 weeks until school starts in early September. Many of the Ukrainian kids are enrolled in online school and feel isolated due to lack of in-person interaction. In addition, the workloads from school restrict their time outdoors and opportunities for playing sports. Through this camp, we hope to create a fun, social environment where they can connect with others while learning a sport we both love. Through the camp, we also hope that we can give young students the opportunity to find their passion for tennis and sports and to provide them the experience that we had growing up.

To run this program, we are hiring professional Romanian tennis coaches at the National Tennis Center in Bucharest and use their tennis courts next to the National Stadium. This will ensure that the children receive high quality tennis lessons from coaches experienced in teaching and training kids.

We will need tennis rackets and are also seeking donations of old tennis rackets to bring with us to Bucharest. We plan to give these kids the tennis rackets at the end of summer.

To make this possible, we’re seeking support to raise $20,000. Our budget allows for $40 per hour to cover both court rental and coaching fees for 1 court. At 15 hours per week with 2 courts and 2 coaches, that comes to $1200 per week. We plan to run the free summer tennis camp for 11 weeks and the total cost will be $13,200 for coaches and court fees.

At the end of the summer tennis camp, each kid will receive a new pair of tennis shoes. If the budgeted cost is $100 per student, for 40 kids, the cost is $4,000. We will also hire a student as tennis camp coordinator at $100 per week. The grand total is $18,300 in anticipated costs and we added an additional buffer for a lunch party and contingencies to make our goal of $20,000.

With your help, we can offer these children a wonderful summer tennis camp despite the challenges they face living in a new country. Your support would mean the world to them—and to us. Thank you very much for your support.