The Trail Blazers asked a students of Reedville Elementary to recount the events at a recent "Read to Achieve" assembly

Rip City Reads to Reedville!

by Katherine Baxter & Kasi Gaarenstroom

On Wednesday March 19, 2008 the Portland Trail Blazers Read to Achieve Program visited Reedville Elementary. During their visit a Blazer was interviewed, students attended an assembly about reading, and a generous gift was given.

The Blazer interviewed was Sergio Rodriguez. He is 21 and originally from Spain. Besides reading in Spanish, he likes to play soccer and go to the beach in his free time. Some of Sergio’s favorite foods are pasta and strawberry ice cream. When it comes to basketball, there is nothing he does not like about the game, except when it comes to the other teams. The only team he roots for is his own!

The assembly started out with 5 members of the stunt team doing some high flying and amazing stunts that made the crowd gasp. Next Antonio Harvey introduced retired Blazer Kevin Duckworth, and current Blazer team members Sergio Rodriguez and Martell Webster. Three lucky kids were picked from the audience to read along with the Blazer team members. They took turns reading “Oh, the Places You’ll Go” by Dr. Seuss.

The Blazers were full of surprises. They brought awesome gifts for our school! A signed basketball, a t-shirt for Ms. Baez, books for our library, Read to Achieve bookmarks for every student, and the very best gift of all, a giant-sized check for $500 to be used to purchase books for our school library!!!