SAN DIEGO — Veterans and active-duty military members in San Diego are finding camaraderie and healing through a free tennis program every Tuesday at the Balboa Tennis Club. The San Diego Wounded Warrior Tennis Program, established in 2009, offers weekly clinics to service members and veterans with service-connected disabilities of any type or degree.
“This program saved my life,” said Monique Labarre, an Army veteran who struggled with PTSD before joining the program. “It was really difficult for me to even get out of bed at that point. I would sit in the parking lot and cry. Like, ‘Can I do this?'”
The program, run entirely by volunteers, uses tennis as a means of health and wellness for wounded, ill, and injured service members and veterans of all ages, eras, and military branches. Steve Kappes, the program’s director and a 24-year Navy veteran, emphasized the focus on fun and community…