October 25, 2004
| Dr. J one moment, Dr. Seuss the next. The Aggie men's basketball team occasionally swaps the round ball for a children's book in order to promote reading through the recently established Aggie Dream Team program. "Reading is important in life, so you have to instill it at an early age," sophomore point guard Acie Law said, "so that kids know how to read and they can carry it up through life." Law and Antoine Wright, a junior forward, "tipped-off" the program in early October when they visited two local elementary schools to read to students. The program, which is sponsored by Brazos Valley Area-Wide Phone Book, hopes to motivate elementary students to meet reading goals by offering incentives including future player reading visits and a free ticket to an Aggie men's basketball home game.
"We knew Bryan and College Station had some literacy goals [for their students] and we wanted to help them reach those," Rochelle Villafranca, marketing assistant for men's basketball, said. "Also, we wanted the kids to have something fun to do while they reach them." Villafranca said she got the idea for an Aggie basketball sponsored reading program from professional basketball organizations. "All NBA teams do the 'Read to Achieve' program," Villafranca said, "and I thought we should bring it to the collegiate level." Law and Wright had no problem bringing themselves down to the elementary students' level-besides folding their six-foot-plus frames into those tiny chairs. "All of them were very focused," Wright said. "You could tell that they really appreciated us coming to read to them, because all of them were well-mannered, they looked at all the pictures, they laughed, and it was a good time for me. The kids participated, so it was fun." The players were quite impressed with that participation. "I didn't know Dr. Seuss books had gotten a little bit harder, though, and a little bit thicker too," Wright said. "I was like, man, these kids are way smarter than I was." "They were asking questions, and they got excited about the book because it was an A&M book," Law added. "Even though they are little, they knew a lot about A&M. It was really interesting." Wright read to second graders at Crockett Elementary in Bryan while Law entertained kindergarteners at College Hills Elementary in College Station. In December, program directors will choose four new school and player combinations for another round of reading visits. "Coach [Gillispie] was very receptive and excited about it," Villafranca said. "[He] guaranteed us four visits in December, so possibly there could be more and we will spread it out so the kids will be motivated to reach their goals." Students in the program are given a reading log on which they keep track of the pages they have read. To qualify for a free ticket to an Aggie home game, the kindergarten through third grade students must complete 200 pages while the fourth through sixth grade students have to eclipse 400 pages. "That is pretty impressive," Wright said. "I don't know if I have read 200 pages yet this semester. So hopefully they will get it done." Villafranca expects at least 1,000 students to do just that. Students in grades K-3 are slated to attend the Dec. 11 game against Alabama A&M, while the upper-level students will receive tickets to the Baylor game on Jan. 29. A grand prize winner will be randomly chosen at each of the two games. The winners will receive a Texas A&M travel bag packed with an Aggie t-shirt, cap and autographed poster. "I'm excited about it because we have a school full of boys and girls who never get to go to events like the basketball games," Crockett Elementary librarian Sandra Wood said. "These kids are really sports-minded. A lot of the younger ones see it as a way to grow up and maybe have money and do something." The Dream Team Program is designed to encourage students to reach those ambitions. "I think times are changing, like I said, just with the Dr. Seuss books," Wright said. "Life is getting harder. People are getting smarter. People are just not getting jobs out of college anymore. You have to have something else to offer. So the quicker you figure that out, the quicker you are on the path to being successful and it starts with something simple-just getting into the habit of reading." Reading is a habit that Aggie men's basketball and the Dream Team Program stress is the key to success. "If you can teach them to read," Wood said, "they can do just about anything and go places." Fittingly, Wright read the students Dr. Seuss's "Oh the Places You Go." |
