JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – September’s PositivelyJAX winner has been working in the community for nearly 30 years.
He started with a goal to expose children to tennis and the program quickly exploded into so much more.
Now, after school, hundreds of students walk to a community center in Durkeeville, which hopefully feels like a second home.
The MaliVai Washington Youth Foundation has changed the lives of thousands of students through sports, academics, life skills and love.
“We call ourselves an extended family so that our relationships, No. 1, they stay in the program as long as possible,” said ?? executive director of the foundation.
Thousands have gone through the program, some starting in kindergarten and participating until they graduated from high school.
MaliVai Washington, who won his first tennis title at 8 years old and was named the top NCAA player in the nation in college, started the foundation on the courts.
“(It started) 28 years ago with me just wanting to do a little tennis program because that’s my background. It’s what I’ve done since I was 5 years old,” Washington said.
His success to him to the men’s singles final at Wimbleton and to four ATP titles. After a knee injury, Washington retired in 1999, but three years earlier he had already laid the foundation for his next career highlight.
He said he never could have imagined that tennis lessons would morph into lessons on life skills, music, robotics, general educational and mental support for students.
“As a collective group, all of our employees, volunteers, all of our supporters, we’re moving in the right direction,” Washington said. “And we’re literally impacting the life of a child. And that’s pretty special.”
Lamiyah Swain, who is in 10th grade, just joined the foundation and has already found what’s likely to keep her coming back each day.
“I wasn’t expecting to like it at first, but I like tennis a lot,” Swain said.
For Washington, that’s a success story. Swain also tutors younger students.
“There are success stories that literally happen every single day. When we have a couple hundred students that are going to come here to the foundation today, that is a little success story, and you pile on thousands of little success stories over the course of their young lives, that is when you start seeing special things happen,” Washington said.
Washington’s foundation makes our entire community better and is leaving behind a legacy that is truly Positively JAX.