Bobcats Active With Two More Community Appearances
March 19, 2007
The Bobcats continued their ongoing efforts to be active in the Charlotte community last week, making two special community relations appearances.
Matt Carroll might have graduated from middle school over a decade ago, but on Tuesday, March 13, he got a refresher in basic grammar and teenage fun.
Carroll, along with Bobcats teammates Emeka Okafor, Jeff McInnis, Ryan Hollins and Primoz Brezec “hit the books” for a guys night at ImaginOn with over 40 middle school boys to kick of Charlotte’s “Guys Read” program. The program is an integral part of the Bobcats’ “Excellence in Education” community outreach program.
“I hope that they learn a little bit,” said Carroll, “But, I hope they have fun with it too. I’m here with my teammates, and I know we are having a good time away from basketball. We are spending time with the kids, reading to them, teaching them about nouns and verbs and stuff and I’m realizing it has been a long time since I’ve been in school.”
The players, along with the boys, participated in three different stations that were scattered throughout ImaginOn, the children’s library in downtown Charlotte.
In each station, the boys had the chance to hang out and be silly with the players. The stations consisted of crazy trivia relays, mad lib games and the chance to hold a press conference and grill some of the Bobcats like actual sports reporters.
The “Guys Read” program is also a part of the Charlotte Reads program, which is used to motivate young boys to get involved in reading.
“Our young readers come and see the Bobcats support something like this says that they are a part of our community and as a motivator it is really important,” said Michelle Gorman, teen services coordinator at ImaginOn. “Having the Bobcats out here and having them support reading is an excellent motivator for these boys. It is amazing.”
“Education is where it is,” responded Carroll. “The biggest thing for kids is to focus on school and to try to keep learning every day. I think kids being motivated to learn is a big step and with us being here it helps. They look at us as just being basketball players, but through this they get to see that I was their age once and when I was young, I wasn’t allowed to play basketball until all of my homework was done. That is the kind of stuff we want to teach to these kids.”
The teaching continued on Thursday, March 15 as Derek Anderson visited approximately 20 at-risk middle school students as part of the Communities in Schools initiative – a “stay in school” program that provides special support to students who are likely to drop out prior to graduation. These children are often at risk, meaning they lack the resources to progress successfully through school.
The CIS program, which is also part of the Bobcats “Excellence In Education” program, focuses on helping these kids improve in the areas of academics, behavior and attendance.
“I thought it was great to see these young kids who want to be leaders,” Anderson said. “You have to feed their souls with that to try and keep them going. I was just another instrument to try to help them keep going and be positive people.”
In speaking with the youth about the importance of education, Anderson shared with them his experiences starting in grade school, all the way through his years at the University of Kentucky.
“It’s not all they needed, but it was something they needed,” he said. “It was food for thought and food for the soul. They have to eat what I’ve given them and have to eat what other people are going to give them in a positive way. They just have to keep getting it – I don’t care who it’s from, as long as they’re getting it in a positive way.”
