PORTSMOUTH- The Steven A Hunter Hope Fund continued its biggest annual fundraiser, the Steven A Hunter Hope Fund Tennis and Pickleball Tournament recently, raising over $32,000.

This is a normal fundraising threshold for the group, which is heavily reliant on the generosity of players and sponsors to feed local children. Last year, the fundraiser brought in nearly $37,000 last year, which provided 49,333 meals for children in 2023/2024.

The Steven A Hunter Hope Fund is a nonprofit that serves southern Ohio, primarily Scioto County, in 20 schools, by providing weekend “power pack” take-home meals each weekend, as well as eight food pantries housed in various school locations. To date, the organization has given out more than 2 million meals.

1,425 kids were planned to be fed last school year through the program.

This year, 42,668 meals will be provided, thanks to the fundraiser.

Hunter explained that the cost to feed the kids in his program continuously grows, even if their greatest partner, Freestore Foodbank, is a great resource in their efforts to feed more and more individuals. The number of kids continues to grow, however, which raises their budget.

To date, the tournaments have had 18 sessions that have raised over $370,000, which has funded 466,668 meals.

“Virgie and I always consider ourselves blessed when we close an event like this and receive such gracious support from the community,” Hunter said. “It means a lot to a lot of people.”

When it came to the games, the winners included: Mens Tennis, Keenan Lambert and Zinedine Arva Purbo; Mens Tennis Runner Up, Wes Bussey and Robert Dever; Women’s Tennis, Amya Carr and Kaylin Johnson; Womens Tennis Runner Up, Tuesday Holbrook and McKynna Jarvis; Pickleball, Brittany Blacker and Randy Smith; Pickleball Runner Up, Amy Hassel and Justin Bell.

“This event continues to be our single largest fundraiser, which hasn’t changed since we started. Obviously, that is important,” Hunter said. “Of course, it is also important to Jim and Jay Daehler, as well as me and Virgie, because Steven was such a serious tennis player. The only change we’ve made is including Pickleball and we are so blessed that people continue to support us in this mission.”

Many of those people helping are individuals who knew the late Steven Hunter, Mark and Virgie’s son, especially Jay and Jim Daehler and Taylor Babcock.

“Our sponsors and participants keep this tournament successful,” Jay Daehler said. “We raised $35,000 for the children of our area which is needed as Mark and Virgie keep expanding into other school systems. We’re trying to help our most vulnerable assets; our kids. No kid should go to sleep with hunger pains, and Steven’s Power Pack can be the first line of defense.”