The Florida division of the United States Tennis Association
has named FAMU alumnus Jerrell Lowery its “Volunteer of the Month.”
Lowery has spent the last five years connecting his tennis
foundation and the university's varsity players in assisting at-risk inner-city
youth in Tallahassee.
The executive director of the Venom Foundation (named as a
take-off of the Florida A&M "Rattlers" mascot) for the past five
years, Lowery turned lemons into lemonade when a proposed high school tennis
team for FAMU's D.R.S. (Developmental Research School, a "laboratory
school" for teaching and learning) fell through roughly five years ago.
"We started Venom as a fundraising booster club for
FAMU's D.R.S., but it never materialized," he said. "There was a
local tennis club, no longer in operation, that I retained membership with that
had started to teach 10 and Under Tennis, but stopped. We then decided to turn
Venom into a 501(c)(3) foundation, to serve the under-privileged kids with
nutrition and fitness education, using tennis as our medium."
Unlike other after-school programs, the Venom Foundation
incorporates FAMU's men's and women's players as volunteers and role models for
kids in the program.
"Since its beginning we have set up teaching programs
that are active three days a week," said Lowery of the program days on
Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays. "We are located on the campus of FAMU so
that the men's and women's tennis teams don't have to travel far to volunteer
with teaching the kids, students, and adults. And by doing so they can earn a
scholarship, or the opportunity to become a certified tennis instructor."
The foundations supports itself with fundraisers and events
that also benefit charities. Its big annual fundraising event is the Maggie
Coffey Annual Memorial Tournament in Tallahassee, and during the month of
October (Oct. 21 this year) a "Pink Out Day" is hosted at the FAMU
tennis courts to recognize Breast Cancer Awareness Month and raise funds.
Lowery, in addition to overseeing the Venom Foundation, is
also a board member for the Tallahassee Police Athletic League and the Rainbow
Tennis League, and was recently certified by the PTR to teach 11-17 year olds.
"As our program offers sessions for all ages, I never
know which of the participants I will be instructing, so I wanted to have the
proper structure for each," he says.
For more information about the Venom Foundation, visit here.