March 11, 2004

Students at Sabin Elementary School in Portland have all become published authors and illustrators - for a third time.

Sabin’s Unplanned Trip to the Rose Garden is the third in a trilogy of books written by the students of Sabin since 2001, and was released at a school assembly today.

Special guests at the event included characters in the book, Blazers Darius Miles, Dan Dickau and Jerome Kersey. Omar Cook also visited the school with his teammates.

The third book’s storyline is a whimsical adventure of the students as they come upon the Rose Garden after a field trip turns icy. In it, the students learn life skills tenants such as flexibility, patience, cooperation, pride, integrity, caring, and teamwork.

Coach Cheeks even gets singing lessons from a fourth grader, “for the next time he has to sing in front of a crowd.”

Jerome Kersey gives the final lesson of the day:
Jerome Kersey, who had just walked in, replied, “Well, they all basically mean teamwork. We use these words and meanings in our everyday life! And I would love to hear that you young people use these life skills, just like out team tries to do in our practices and basketball games. These are smart things to know!”

Each student in the school was responsible for one small part of the book, from art, to writing and conception, the book was a 300 student collaborative process lead by art specialist, Chris Lamp, fifth grade teacher Nita Kreuzer and Sabin’s new principal, Richard Schafer.

The unveiling of the third in a trilogy of the Sabin Blazers books is part of the Blazers Reading Month agenda taking place throughout March. Other projects on tap include Reading Time Outs with team members at schools and youth recreation facilities around Portland. The Blazers will also renew their annual pledge to SMART, Start Making a Reader Today, by donating $15,000, making the team's contribution to this program at over $250,000 to date.