In honor of the Foundation’s 25th anniversary, we sat down with MaliVai to reflect on the past 25 years and talk about his favorite memories and accomplishments since he started MWYF in 1996.
Q: What was your vision & goals for Mwyf in the 1990’s and how does that align with where mwyf is today?
The idea was to work with a group of kids in Northeast Florida, kids who otherwise would never be exposed to tennis, and get them out on the tennis court in the hopes that they would gain from the sport some of the things I’ve gained - the value of hard work, dedication, sportsmanship and sticking to a task. From those early days of just wanting to expose them to tennis, it has really morphed into so much more. We realized very quickly, learning to hit a forehand and backhand is great, but is there a better way to serve them in life. We literally did a 180 and went from a tennis program in the 90s, to a tennis and education program, to then over the years starting our life skills program - so just evolving.
It’s something that I’m proud of because I think we are genuinely impacting lives and genuinely saving lives- literally saving lives with the programs. Its just a great sense of, I’d say, accomplishment and pride that I have that so many people have come together to support the Foundation.
Q: we have heard countless impact stories from families, students and alumni, have reached major milestones and seen incredible outcomes from many programs. If you could think of one moment over the past 25 years where you really saw and understood the difference the Foundation was making what would it be?
It’s always fun when a student comes back to the Foundation and shows a level of appreciation and just kind of says hey thanks for the Foundation or this is the impact of the Foundation. There was one student who graduated from college, and this actually resonated with me, she graduated from college and she said “Mr. Mal, one of the greatest things about the Foundation is I was able to graduate debt free.”
Q: What is your hope for the next 25 years at the foundation?
So I think I’m most proud that we have lasted for twenty-five years, and literally today, we are trying to set ourselves up to last another twenty-five or fifty years. So long after I’m gone, I want to feel like and know that the Foundation will still be impacting young people here on the First Coast. So my vision for the Foundation is to be a staple in this community that will be here for generations to come.
After 25 years, obviously this isn’t something that I’ve done alone, or just a few staff members have done alone. No, this has been a true community effort. From our staff, which has always been led by our current Executive Director, Terri Florio, to all of our staff members, literally hundreds of staff members, volunteers, donors, individual donors, family foundations, corporate donors and people who have spent countless hours as board members or just helping out in a classroom or on the tennis court, this has been a collective effort, and that is why we are in our 25th year. And I want to say how grateful I am for all that support, we could not have done it without you, and we won’t be able to succeed in the future without continued support. So I hope and trust that every hour and every dollar you have donated to this Foundation, we have honored that commitment by running the best program that we can. Going forward, we are going to continue to try to do that, we are going to continue to try to be worthy of your time and effort and treasure that you are trusting in the Foundation. So thank you.
