Meet Shreyan Dey | Tennis Player & Co-Founder of Play4Plates

We had the good fortune of connecting with Shreyan Dey and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Shreyan, is there a quote or affirmation that’s meaningful to you?
My favorite quote is “Success is not final, failure is not fatal” by Winston Churchill.

This affirmation means that both success and failure are temporary, and neither should define us in the long run. Success isn’t the end, and neither is failure. Both are stepping stones and learning opportunities. The quote reassures me to see each experience as a part of an ongoing journey and process.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Play4Plates is a charity sports organization that hosts sports tournaments in the North Texas area to raise proceeds for families facing food insecurity. We found our foot in this activity by integrating our passion for sports into a larger goal of helping alleviate hunger. We see sports as a way to not just bring personal growth and improvement, but to bring people together in the spirit of completion and play for a larger cause.

Building our nonprofit organization and getting to where we are today with our tournaments wasn’t easy. We initially dealt with lots of disengagement and unpredictability with our tournaments, especially after seeing players withdraw from their matches the night before the events.

However, after hosting our first successful tournaments, the engagement wasn’t really an issue anymore. Players naturally became interested in our events’ cause and decided to come play in our tournaments and commit to doing so.

A big lesson I’ve learned along the way is the importance of listening to the community. Understanding the preferences of athletes signing up for our tournaments has been crucial in shaping the way we expand our organization. What I want others to know about us is that we work to use sports as a tool for social good and to connect people from all walks of life to help those in need.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
If my best friend was visiting the area, I would take them to the Stonebriar Mall and the Allen Outlets Mall. The best place to eat would be Panda Express at either place.

These malls are some of the most fun places to check out in the area due to their extensive network of individual stores that suits any type of shopper. The Allen Outlet Mall is outdoors and the stores are closer to each other, so the shopping experience would feel more like the ideal shopping experience there.

Within the Stonebriar Mall, all the stores are indoors and a bit further apart in walking distance, however, the mall’s shopping options are definitely comparable to Allen’s. Anything can be found at either place.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I want to dedicate my shoutout to the North Texas athlete community that’s constantly supported us in each of our charity sports tournaments. Without their engagement, we wouldn’t be able to advance our mission of hosting charity sports tournaments to raise proceeds and fund meals for families in the community facing food insecurity. I would also like to shoutout the referees who come out and volunteer to take control of the rules and operations of our tournaments.

Play4Plates is a team effort, and everyone involved plays a big role in the impact we’re trying to make.

Instagram: @p4pcharity