| S A N TA F E A N S A L U T E S |
match.net former fashion mogul Eleanor Brenner raises the net high for Santa Fe kids photo by Ann Murdy
Who: Eleanor Brenner. Past life: A hard-driving born-and-bred New Yorker, Brenner, 75, traveled the world while running her own women’s clothing business. Her aha moment: On the final day of one of her first visits to Santa Fe with her husband Richard, a former Bloomingdale’s executive, “I looked up at the mountains, and they went from color A to color G,” recalls Brenner. “I had an epiphany: I’m going to end my life here.” Paying it forward: “I was brought up that we were blessed to live in America and that it’s our responsibility to give back,” says Brenner. After bearing witness to too much apathy while volunteering at various area public schools, “I made up my mind to start a program. Tennis became the hook.” First facts: Entering its ninth year and part of a national nonprofit, First Serve receives no city or state funding (its budget comes from fundraising events), and it involves two days a week of tutoring and two days of tennis with eight kids per tutor and instructor. “You’re not going to change a kid’s mindset just with tutoring,” insists Brenner. “I wanted a rounded kid.” On the line: Brenner goes to each of the program’s seven schools (from elementary to high school) every weekday. “I am the grandmother,” she says. “This is not my ego. This is my calling.” Game, set, matched: “The goal is the success of every kid—to get them into college on a scholarship, if they can,” says Brenner. “It’s putting a desire and a conviction into these kids that they want to be at the top of the ladder.”—Devon Jackson 100
santafean.com
august/september 2011