Andy Roddick's Foundation Helping Support Families Affected by Pandemic in Austin

Former World No. 1 Andy Roddick says his foundation is raising money to help support families in Austin, Texas affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Roddick's foundation, The Andy Roddick Foundation, has created a Family Emergency Fund to help families in Austin and spoke to the ATP Tour website about his efforts and ways in which people can help.

“It’s a huge deal. If you think about the cost of groceries, even the smallest donation can cover groceries for a day, which in these times is huge. That was our first goal: we’ve got to replace these two meals a day, to not throw a family that’s already potentially in a stressful situation in a financially stressful situation. Thankfully we do plan ahead so we do have a little bit of a runway, but we also have staff and food and there are so many different needs we have to fill right now. Anything we can get helps, and the Austin community has been amazing… Every little bit at this moment in time can make the difference for a family.”

Roddick's foundation has been working with underprivileged children for some time now in the Austin region and while those programs can't be run now due to the closure of schools, they are looking for other ways to help. “We sign up and we want these kids. We start them in kindergarten and we go through fifth grade and our job is to really supplement the parents, giving the families the tools they need to succeed. That doesn’t end at the school bell. That doesn’t end when they walk off campus. The families that we serve are the types of families that get hit the hardest during something like this. You have to be able to act quickly, so we had a bunch of emergency strategy meetings with our board, with our staff. It’s a tough thing, because a lot of our value is the person-to-person interaction… We have to continue to serve the families that put their faith in us.”

The Family Emergency Fund has already raised more than $15,000 within three days of  being launched.

from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/2wGHmrr