Meet Hayden Smith, a 7-year-old athlete from our Atlanta, GA program. Hayden tried soccer but his mother, LeKeshia Smith, didn’t feel like he quite fit in. So, she was thrilled to find a program her son felt he belonged to when they started at ACEing Autism. “Hayden loves spinning and the volunteers spinned with him,…
Meet Connor W, a 14-year-old player from our Evanston, IL program. He loves Spider-Man, Star Wars, and now tennis. As Connor’s mom, Suzanne Jakstavich, said: “I love ACEing Autism because of the community we’ve created. It’s a community for my son but it’s also a community for me because of the friendships I’ve built and…
As a child, I played racket sports. I have memories of badminton battles amongst fall foliage in suburban NC, church tennis tournaments in the summer, and epic ping pong matches. In the winter, my sister and I would don puffer jackets and head to the garage – each of us swinging with a bit more…
Aceing Autism is a national organization that helps children thrive through the sport of tennis. It’s had a profound impact on countless families who are part of an underserved, yet growing population. Chris Hayre attended one of the clinics at the nearby Claremont chapter Watch Video
Meet Elizabeth (Lizzie) Fear, a 13-year old athlete from our Lexington, KY program, who was diagnosed with Down syndrome and then autism. “The biggest gift for me is to see her grow, seeing her go from playing a child’s game to playing tennis and seeing a smile on her face when she reaches a new…
“When I first saw the West Coast award, I was with my parents. My coach texted me the news, and I started leaping up, yelling ‘I got it!’ and it made my day. Then, when the National award came out, I couldn’t contain my smile,” Rohun Krishnan, a former Program Director for our Claremont program…
Meet Kaitlin Gish, a junior at Henry High School who started as an ACEing Autism Lexington and is now an Assistant Program Director. “It really puts all my blessings in perspective,” Kaitlin said, when asked what ACEing Autism means to her. After hearing about ACEing Autism through her high school teammates, the then-sophomore, continued an…
On Friday, March 29, over 250 players gathered for the 2024 LA Open presented by the Los Angeles Tennis Association (LATA), which is part of the Gay and Lesbian Tennis Alliance (GLTA) World Tour. By the end of the day, 300 matches were played in a Fast 4 format due to the rain. But most…
