It’s a cold rainy morning in the parking garage of the Ronald McDonald House near Emory University, and tennis pro Juan Pablo Arico is hopping up and down behind a bright red net, lurching from side to side and gripping the hand of Alex Bowman of Lebanon, Va.
Arico, 49, is the tennis pro at the Marcus Jewish Community Center of Atlanta. Alex is a third-grader who makes the seven-hour trek to the Ronald McDonald House from Virginia every three months with his parents, David and Ginger Bowman.
He comes for checkups and treatments every few months since he had a liver transplant when he was nine months old for biliary atresia, a rare and potentially fatal disease.
The care he receives, thanks to Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and McDonald’s operators, has kept him healthy, by all appearances. The big smile on his face during his tennis lessons suggests he’s not too ill to have a ball.
“He’s in a study to see if the medicine will be rejected,” said his mother. “He’s done really well since the transplant.”
This prognosis is good, but that’s not always the case.
“We had a kid who was being released from the hospital with brain cancer,” said Arico, although he doesn’t know how the child is doing now.
Arico is head of an MJCCA program that teaches tennis to sick and recovering youngsters every other Friday at the Ronald McDonald House, where family members of children stay when their kids who come to see doctors.
“The kids doing tennis with us are usually in pretty good condition,” said Arico.
For the parents, even those like Alex’s who make long trips, it’s “wonderful” to see their kids smile.
“He has fun here,” said Alex’s mom.
Arico and his team take two portable nets to the facility.
“We are trying to make the children and their parents really have fun,” he said. “After a little bit you see everybody laughing. I teach tennis at the center but was wondering, what else can I offer? I wanted to use the sport I love to create a deeper meaning to try to help others.”
It’s a mitzvah, Hebrew for good deed, Arico said.
“It’s the hardest time in any family’s life when their child is sick,” said Beth Howell, president and CEO of Atlanta Ronald McDonald House Charities. “It is very stressful for the families. And they all look forward to it.”
The nonprofit has two houses, one near Emory and the other near Peachtree Dunwoody. It is currently in the middle of a capital campaign to grow. Right now the two facilities have a combined 61 bedrooms. The goal is to increase that to 81.
Arico is not just a tennis pro, said Gail Luxenberg, CEO of the MJCCA, he was named employee of the year about a year ago.
“He also does a lot here on our campus for young kids and kids with disabilities,” she said.
Arico has volunteered to run some tennis classes for kids and that was the impetus for doing something for those who don’t get these opportunities.
“We want to do things beyond our walls,” said Luxenberg. “To see kids who are sick is just heartbreaking. We are happy to be able to help them.”
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