They were warm summer days In the Austin neighborhood of the Chicago west side.

Circle Urban Ministries' Afterschool program wanted to introduce tennis to 14 of their kids.

Rather than scarce dollars, we used time exchange.  Each parent or guardian "paid" 2 hours of time for their child to participate in the program. 14 children times 2 hours gave us 28 hours to pay the three tennis coaches.  

The kids were delighted, the staff thought the tennis program was great. I was an assistant tennis coach and had a blast. It was a bit like having 14 grandkids.