16th Annual Sean Eduardo Sanchez Tennis Center Pro-Am fundraising tennis tournament set for Oct. 16

The 16th Annual Sean Eduardo Sanchez (SES) Tennis Center fundraising Pro-Am tennis tournament will be held on Sunday, Oct. 16, beginning at 12:30 p.m. at Rancho Valencia Resort & Spa, located at 5921 Valencia Circle, Rancho Santa Fe. Tennis-playing amateurs who will pay a donation entry fee in three separate divisions (men’s division, open division and women’s division), will be partnered with local tennis professionals to compete for the championship.

Proceeds from the event will benefit the children enrolled in the SES Tennis Center located in Tecate, Mexico, (a California-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization), which provides access to tennis lessons, tennis equipment and cross-border tournament transportation while also supporting the efforts of the Empty Cradle, a Southern California nonprofit organization that helps parents cope with the loss of an infant before, during or after birth. (emptycradle.org).

Rancho Valencia Resort & Spa has underwritten and hosted the event at the resort for the past 15 years. Primary sponsors of the one-day Pro-Am as of this writing include: Rancho Valencia Resort & Spa; Brad and Julie Worley; Charles Brandes; Chris McCullum; Karla Swatek; CGS3 Law; Eva M. Stimson; Patrick Dugan and Family, Donald Shepherd; Cali Comfort Barbeque; Coffee Ambassador; Wilson Sporting Goods, Sport Pins International, ARMA Products, and Volkert Investments.

Currently 150 children are enrolled in the tennis program at the SES Tennis Center, which has grown since inception in 2004 to include four regulation-size tennis courts. The tennis facility includes two hard-court surfaces and two clay-court surfaces, as well as lights for evening practice and competitions. Visit sestenniscenter.org for further details on the Tennis Center. According to SES Tennis Center Founder and Rancho Valencia Head Tennis Pro Eduardo Sanchez, “We’re equally honored and grateful that Rancho Valencia Resort & Spa has once again agreed to host our fundraising event that promotes life-changing opportunities to Tecate youth who enroll in our program. Several of our graduates have advanced to national rankings and higher educational opportunities, providing inspiration to additional children to follow the path of the sport of tennis, which includes obtaining life-long skills of leadership, fair play on and off the court, camaraderie and a healthy lifestyle. In addition, we’re pleased to provide support to the Empty Cradle in Southern California, who we have supported throughout the past 16 years as an additional beneficiary of our fundraising efforts.”

A silent auction will be offered during the tennis tournament to help support the fundraising goal. The event will be held from 12:30 p.m. to 6 p.m., and includes a barbecue with a trophy presentation. Tickets to attend the event as a spectator are $150 per person (children under the age of 18 are welcomed at the reduced rate of $35 per child) for this family-friendly event and reservations include a barbecue dinner from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m., during the finals of the tournament competition. For more information about registering for the event or to donate, visit sestenniscenter.org.

The founders of the nonprofit organization, Eduardo and Amelia Sanchez, accomplished a life-long dream to construct public tennis courts for use by all the citizens of Tecate, regardless of their ability to pay. Eduardo and Amelia officially dedicated the project on June 4, 2004, in memory of their deceased infant son, Sean Eduardo Sanchez. For further information, call Eduardo Sanchez at (760) 415-6399 or email him at tktpro1@gmail.com.