I’ve been aware of the plight of homelessness for a long time. For as long as I can remember, my parents have always given money to the homeless. I can’t remember a time when they have not rolled down the window, for example, to give someone a few dollars to get some food, instead of just speeding off like the person in the street did not exist. I have always been interested in the fate of homeless people because the homeless were made “visible” to me through these experiences. The homeless are people, just like us, only without a place to live. So, I decided to do something.

I love playing tennis and that’s what I do all the time, in addition to studying and going to school. There was no additional time left to devote to supporting the homeless in traditional ways, so I came up with the idea — Serving Homeless. Serving The Homeless is just an effort to get people in the tennis community to help support people in the homeless community. We hold tennis-related events where we sell T-shirts and food, then give 100% of the proceeds to our local, professional homeless shelter partners, who have experience directly supporting the homeless. It takes professionals to work with the homeless and most of us are under-age youth, so we never interact directly with the homeless. We do our part on the fringes to help those who are less fortunate, through partners who what they are doing when it comes to supporting homeless people.

And what does tennis have to do with homelessness? Pretty much nothing. That’s the point. You don’t need a reason or a logical connection to help others. Our organization brings awareness to the plight of homeless people through tennis, because that is what we happen to do. The moral of the story is that it does not matter what you do, you can help. “Dots” do not have to be connected to help others. Either you do it or you don’t. We are.

Please take a look at our site for more information and please help us do our small part to help the largely invisible homeless find a measure of dignity in life.


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- Jason Keye (Founder)
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