Sujaan Lal

Sujaan Lal has created a movement in the youth tennis community that highlights the commitment of a student athlete to community and literacy.

Lal, a senior at Westwood High School in Austin, Texas, founded Racquet Readers to benefit the Central Texas Tennis Association (CTTA) in December of 2011. CTTA provides low cost tennis lessons, tutoring and mentoring to children in south and east Austin, Texas.

As a freshman, Lal began working as a tennis coach and mentor to children who attended CTTA’ s tennis camps. During this time, he soon decided he wanted to help these children in a meaningful way by making reading skills accessible like CTTA does with tennis lessons and life skills.

By December 2012, Lal’s Racquet Readers had collected and given away more than 8,000 books to CTTA children and 17 Austin public schools. Their books have reached McLane Children’s Hospital and head start programs in outlying Austin counties through the Texans in Motion program.

Every day, Lal is recruiting others to join his cause and promote literacy. He has enlisted the help of Westwood High School Varsity Tennis & National Honor Society members as well as UT Austin students to distribute books and mentor children.

Thus far, the Racquet Readers have distributed over 11,200 books and counting to central Texas children in need.