{"id":244663,"date":"2026-04-24T12:40:37","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T12:40:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/244663\/"},"modified":"2026-04-24T12:40:37","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T12:40:37","slug":"a-special-recognition-of-tennis-for-funs-special-director","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/244663\/","title":{"rendered":"A special recognition of Tennis for Fun’s special director"},"content":{"rendered":"

BRANDON, Fla. —\u00a0The City of Tampa recently recognized Judy Moore, who co-founded Tennis for Fun<\/a>, for all her efforts in providing an adaptive sport to families with disabilities.<\/p>\n

“When you see all the athletes and what it means to them,\u201d said Judy Moore. \u201cAnd seeing them, inspires you to keep going.”<\/p>\n

An idea that began 26 years ago is still bringing fun in tennis and bringing the community together.<\/p>\n

What You Need To Know<\/p>\n

\u00a0City of Tampa recognized Judy Moore for her efforts in leading Tennis for Fun<\/a> program for special needs families
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\u00a0Moore is the national director of the program which has 19 locations in Florida and 8 beyond the Sunshine State
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\u00a0She co-founded the program with her son Nathan<\/p>\n

Moore leads the training of special needs athletes in the sport of tennis and some of them even qualify for the Special Olympics.<\/p>\n

Tennis for Fun started out as a place to include everyone.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor special needs athletes,\u201d Moore said. \u201cMost of them are out of school. We started in 2000, and a lot of the athletes have been with us for 26 years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Judy\u2019s son, Nathan is the other co-founder.<\/p>\n

He was a senior at Tampa\u2019s Jesuit High School when he thought of the idea to start an organization to help special needs athletes learn how to play tennis.<\/p>\n

The group has now expanded to nineteen locations statewide and eight beyond Florida.<\/p>\n

They are free tennis clinics, run entirely by volunteers.<\/p>\n

Ann Dunleavy volunteered first, before learning how to play.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got challenged by some of the athletes here,\u201d Dunleavy said. \u201cSo, I had to buy a racket and learn so I could play with them.\u201d<\/p>\n

The lesson learned is a simple one.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just warms your heart,\u201d she said. \u201cIt shows you what\u2019s important in your world.\u201d<\/p>\n

But there is also a force behind the fun.<\/p>\n

From directing stretching exercises in two languages to directing the action on the courts, Moore is playing more than just tennis.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou want to leave an imprint on the world, and I just feel like this is my thing,\u201d Moore said. \u201cIt\u2019s my community, Tennis for Fun, it\u2019s like part of my family, we are a family.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moore is bringing the community together and offering more than fun to people in our community who might not have the chance.<\/p>\n

And for the 26 years, Moore\u2019s community has been thanking her.<\/p>\n

\u201cJudy is an angel,\u201d said one coach.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love Miss Judy more than anything. She is so wonderful,\u201d said a participant.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe always puts everybody else in front of her first,\u201d Dunleavy said. \u201cAll the time.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BRANDON, Fla. —\u00a0The City of Tampa recently recognized Judy Moore, who co-founded Tennis for Fun, for all her…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":244664,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[3076,25743,28,15464,1548,276,115,772,25744,135,137,136,835],"class_list":{"0":"post-244663","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa","8":"tag-app-good-news","9":"tag-feel-good-friday","10":"tag-florida","11":"tag-florida-inspires","12":"tag-good-news","13":"tag-hillsborough-county","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-on-air-ticker-article","16":"tag-roy-de-jesus","17":"tag-tampa","18":"tag-tampa-headlines","19":"tag-tampa-news","20":"tag-vod"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244663\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/244664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}