Park City native Nick Von Der Ahe has been serving for years.
Tennis balls, that is. Now a junior at Loyola Marymount University, Von Der Ahe grew up playing tennis at the Park City Racquet Club. During his high school years, he went undefeated and helped his team win four state championship titles. He was also one of the top regional junior players in the United States Tennis Association. All of that success earned him a full-ride college tennis scholarship.
But now he is ready to serve for a different cause. Over the years, Von Der Ahe developed a relationship with Parkite Dr. Geoffrey Tabin, a hall of fame tennis player. Tabin, who is an optholmalogist in the area, has been a very active part of Unite for Sight for years, taking his services to India, Ghana and Honduras and providing much needed eye care and surgeries to the people there. Von Der Ahe, who aspires to become a doctor, began talking with Tabin about summer internship possibilities and decided that he wanted to become a part of the program. This summer, Von Der Ahe will travel with Tabin and the Unite for Sight group to Honduras. As a volunteer, Von Der Ahe will assist in surgeries, distribute glasses and medications and perform other tasks to help the Hondurans.
But Von Der Ahe’s service has really just begun. In order to travel to Honduras, he must raise money to defray the costs of the surgeries and eye care. Thus far, Von Der Ahe has been asking friends and family for donations, but this weekend he will have a special opportunity to get more support from home. The Loyola Marymount tennis team plays both the University of Utah and Brigham Young University and Von Der Ahe plans to drum up as much local support as possible. He has already got the Racquet Club involved and plans to drop by some other Park City businesses while he is in town.
“I’m just getting the word out,” he said. “I think it’s a pretty cool organization.”
The trip should also help Von Der Ahe make some decisions about becoming an optholmalogist in the future. In the past, Tabin has allowed Von Der Ahe to shadow him during eye surgeries. He is in amazed by the ability to work with such small and fine tissues and restore vision.
“It’s really kind of wild,” he said.
This will be Von Der Ahe’s first real mission trip. Last year, he was pivotal in organizing free tennis sessions for local Latino youth, but has never traveled outside of the area. This is also the first time he will go into the trenches of a developing nation and is looking forward to the experience.
“I truthfully think it will be a life-changing experience,” Von Der Ahe said. “I’m sure I’ll want to do more.”
In the meantime, Von Der Ahe is being a pretty giving guy at home. The entire LMU team is staying at his parents’ Park City home and warming up for the collegiate matches at the Racquet Club. He is also hoping that family, friends and community members will take advantage of the local matches to come out and watch him play.
To donate to Von Der Ahe or learn more about Unite for Sight, visit https://maestropay.com/go/uniteforsight/volunteers/ref/f47230bf07984766a1d287feea477ea6. For a detailed schedule of LMU’s matches, visit www.lmulions.com.