Two Ridgefield Students Raise Funds for Grassroots Tennis & Enrichment Program Event

Lynn Radford (Director of Tutoring & Enrichment, Grassroots Tennis & Enrichment Program), Samantha Stockel, Carl Bailey (President of the Board of Directors, Grassroots Tennis), Lauren Dalton and Max Scanlon (pictured) enjoyed the sold-out Golden Dragon Acrobats spectacular event along with a group of students from the Danbury Grassroots Tennis & Enrichment Program on Sunday, March 2, at The Ridgefield Playhouse.

The Danbury Grassroots Tennis & Enrichment Program started serving the community in 2006 with a commitment to improving lives of selected young people in Danbury through tennis complemented by educational support. In 2011, two Ridgefield middle school students, Samantha Stockel and Max Scanlon, collaborated to raise money for the non-profit program by selling chocolate. Funds raised helped bring a group of Grassroots Tennis students to The Ridgefield Playhouse to enjoy the spellbinding performance of the Golden Dragon Acrobats. Samantha and Max raised enough money to hire a bus to transport the kids and received other donations to cover the cost of the tickets.

Overwhelmed by the enthusiasm of the talented kids participating in the Grass Roots enrichment program, Samantha and Max have signed on to run a similar program every year until they graduate from high school. Last year, the group attended a musical event at the Playhouse, Broadway Backstage, where multi-talented Broadway performers sang, danced and shared how they got their big break.

This year, the young students from Grassroots Tennis were delighted to return to the Playhouse for a totally different arts event. "The show was amazing," said Lauren Dalton, Director. "We were all on the edge of our seats and were excited and scared and nervous and just blown away!"

The Ridgefield Playhouse is a not-for-profit performing arts center located at 80 East Ridge, parallel to Main St., Ridgefield, CT; ridgefieldplayhouse.org, 203-438-5795 box office.