Marcus Lewis Tennis Center Inc. All of it began when tennis professional, Marcus Lewis, returned from playing satellite tennis in tournaments held in Europe and Africa. At the time, tennis in Central Massachusetts was not player-friendly and/or the costs were exorbitant.
Sensing an opportunity to offer something better for a reasonable price, the eponymous business was launched in 1997 and instantly grew to become a three-season operation that provided lessons in the Acton area. Years later, it would grow to operate year-round with multiple satellite programs in Acton, Groton, Stow, Bolton and Harvard with as many as 16 courts contemporaneously being utilized. The Marcus Lewis Tennis Center now partners with four different towns to provide recreation services and three different school systems to offer QuickStart tennis programs. VISIT WEBSITE
Marcus Lewis Enterprises Inc.
d.b.a. Marcus Lewis Day Camp Similar to the Tennis Center, the Marcus Lewis Day Camp arose from the belief that the day camp industry was not meeting the needs of the market. Due to a lack of competition, camps were overpriced and the services offered were not exceptional. Many of these day programs would not allow a child to be registered for fewer than four weeks at a time! Although understandable for an overnight camp to keep kids for multiple weeks, day camps did this for the sole purpose of increased revenue with no benefit to the family. The MLDC opened in the summer of 2002 and after only one year of operation, the camp won the coveted Reader’s Choice Award as the best camp in a 20+ town area. Within a few years, the pressure of a competitive atmosphere pushed existing programs to take another look at their formats. For the first time in decades, prices either ceased to rise or they actually went down. Four-week minimums are now rare amongst day camps. Curriculums are now much more diverse in order to stay relevant. Who came out on top? Consumers, as it should be. VISIT WEBSITE
CRAFT Inc. d.b.a. Mirror Lake Management Mirror Lake is a beautiful pristine water body that exists on the former military base of Devens, Massachusetts. This lake was used by the Marcus Lewis Day Camp, but it needed to be managed as a separate entity. Mirror Lake Management was created in 2006 for the sole purpose of proper oversight of the lake. Staffing, boat rentals, special events and the everyday tasks of tending to patrons are just some of the duties the company oversees. Besides renovating the area, Mirror Lake Management staged an impressive economic turnaround with the site, taking it from tens of thousands of dollars in losses to ultimate profitability. VISIT WEBSITE
Marcus Lewis Tennis Center Inc.
d.b.a. Massachusetts Tennis Association The Massachusetts Tennis Association is a division of the Marcus Lewis Tennis Center that hopes to be at the vanguard of an innovative means of rating and matching players together.
Since the inception of the game of tennis, there was never a universal means of rating recreational players until the United States Tennis Association came up with the National Tennis Rating Program (NTRP). Although a great leap forward, the system was too broad and did not partition the levels far enough. It also did not account for gender or age.
A program called “Tencap” has finally addressed those issues. The NTRP rates players on a scale of 1-7 by .5 increments (e.g. 2.5, 3.0, 3.5, etc.) and a 3.0 male player is not comparable to a 3.0 female player. Tencap rates players on a scale of 0-80 with a zero being an elite professional and an 80 being a complete beginner. A player with a Tencap of 30 is completely compatible with another player of the same rating regardless of age and gender. This new rating system combined with state-of-the-art software, allows players to connect with other players completely free of charge and it also provides numerous playing opportunities with other players in their own communities. VISIT WEBSITE
Community Recreation Association For Towns Inc.
(CRAFT) Municipal recreation programs often find themselves struggling to raise revenue through user fees that will offset their expenses. In some of the best case scenarios, this means breaking even. If the economy is poor or participation is down, then communities will often have to subsidize their local recreation department to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars annually. Enter Community Recreation Association For Towns or “CRAFT.” CRAFT is the answer for many communities that are looking to find the right balance with their recreation programs. CRAFT can operate as a stand-alone entity or as an adjunct to extant recreation departments. VISIT WEBSITE
