San Diego-based April Bisharat, founder of Love 15 Tennis and a former professional tennis player, hosted a fundraising “tennis fest and clinic” to benefit her tennis student 15-year-old Daniella Benitez’s, Build A Miracle team house. The event raised $2,000 toward Benitez’s goal.
Three years ago, Benitez, a Notre Dame Academy student, had participated in the building of a home in Tijuana, Mexico, through the nonprofit organization, Build A Miracle, founded by Chris and Julianne North in 2001.
It takes $16,000 to take a family from living in a shack to a fully furnished home with running water, electricity, bedrooms, bathrooms, showers, a kitchen and a real roof. Benitez, then 12 years old, was so moved that she committed to head up the building of one home a year. Benitez is currently raising money for her third Build a Miracle project. The proceeds from the tennis clinic will benefit her team’s next build, as well as that of her 12-year-old brother, Gabriel Benitez, a seventh grader at Notre Dame Academy, who is heading up his second home.
In 2018, Bisharat launched Love 15’s “First Ace: Finding A Way TO WIN” give-back initiative, which provides tennis clinic fundraisers for locally based charitable organizations such as Build A Miracle and Make Schools Safe Again. Visit buildamiracle.net.
