DALLAS – Once again this season the Dallas Mavericks will focus on the importance of reading through the NBA’s Read To Achieve program. The club tipped off the program Monday, October 21st at American Airlines Center in conjunction with the club’s adopt-a-schools, all Mavs players, The Dallas Morning News Newspapers in Education (NIE) program and Young Audiences of North Texas. Radio personality Chris Arnold emceed the event.

The event included 250 students from five of the six Mavs adopt-a-schools (Harrell Budd Elementary School, J.T. Saldivar Elementary School, Lida Hooe Elementary School, Martin Luther King Elementary School and S.S. Conner Elementary School), had lunch, courtesy of Chick-fil-A, and then were escorted down to the practice facility for the introduction of Mavs players and the program components.

The students were divided into groups, facilitated by Mavs players, The Dallas Morning News NIE representation and Young Audiences personnel. The students were assigned to one of five groups and the groups rotated through five activities in 20-minute intervals. The five activity stations included: creating personalized bookmarks; making masks of favorite book characters; using modeling clay to mold favorite book characters; using newspaper in fun games and activities and reading with Mavs and Wheelchair Mavs players.

At the conclusion of the event, the students received a book of their choice, T-shirts, bookmarks, stickers, pencils, an activity booklet, a mini-reading lamp and a stuffed Chick-fil-A cow.

Special thanks to Read To Achieve sponsors AT&T Broadband and Chick-fil-A.

Monthly Reading Timeouts
This season, members of the Dallas Mavericks All-Star Reading Team will visit two Dallas Public Library branch locations each month and read to students. The following is a list of locations: November – Oak Lawn and Children’s Center at Central Library; December – Preston Royal and Highland Hills; January – Pleasant Grove and Kleberg-Rylie; February – Walnut Hill and Polk-Wisdom; March – North Oak Cliff and Park Forest; April – Martin Luther King, Jr.

Mavs All-Star Reading Team Members
Members of the local reading team include: all Mavs players; Mavs coaches Rolando Blackman, Brad Davis, Del Harris, Sidney Moncrief, Donnie Nelson and Charlie Parker; Wheelchair Mavs Player Abu Yilla; Mavs television announcers Bob Ortegel, Matt Pinto and Derek Harper; Mavs radio announcers Mark Followill and Edgardo Lopez; Mavs President/CEO Terdema Ussery; local sports television announcers Babe Laufenberg and Scott Murray and Joy Nelson, wife of Mavs GM/Head Coach Don Nelson.

About Read to Achieve
NBA Read to Achieve Tipoff Week is October 21st-25th. The NBA’s Read to Achieve (RTA) campaign is a year-round national program designed to help young people develop a life-long love for reading and encourage adults to read and talk with children regularly. Reaching an estimated 50 million children per year, Read to Achieve is the most extensive educational outreach initiative in the history of professional sports. The effort includes the annual donation of more than 200,000 books and the creation of Reading and Learning Centers in schools and community- based organizations throughout the country.

The program receives league-wide support from the entire NBA family. In addition to being supported by all 29 NBA teams, 16 WNBA teams, the eight teams that make up the NBA's new minor league, the National Basketball Development League (NBDL), Read to Achieve is supported by the NBA's officials, parents and wives of players organizations and the NBA Players Association and Retired Players Association. Read to Achieve also expands the NBA's existing partnerships with Scholastic Inc., and Reading Is Fundamental.

About Newspaper in Education (NIE)
Newspaper in Education (NIE) at The Dallas Morning News is a national award-winning department that has served teachers and students in North Texas for over two decades. In addition to providing the newspaper for classroom use, NIE creates and delivers innovative programs that are used to teach TAKS skills. This season NIE has partnered with the Dallas Mavericks to publish serialized stories in the Texas Living section of The Dallas Morning News. Three different stories will appear during the 2002-03 season on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. The firs story ran from September 16 – 27th and was titled “The Best in the World.” The second installment will be “The Valley of No Return” and will run October 28 – December 13 and the last story will be “Up in the Air: The Story of the Wright Brothers” and will run March 31 – May 9.

About Young Audiences of North Texas
Young Audiences of North Texas (YA) is one of the leading providers of arts-in-education services in the Southwest, serving more than 400,000 children a year. This non-profit organization, established in 1987, provides quality educational experiences, incorporating all aspects of the performing, visual and literary arts. The agency’s sole focus is arts education, provided through in-school, summer, weekend or after-school programming. Young Audiences programs range from the classic western disciplines – including opera, classical music, and theater – to culturally specific programming that reflects and educates the diverse community in which it serves. For more information on Young Audiences visit www.yanorthtexas.org.

250 kids attended the tipoff on Monday, Oct. 21 at the Mavs practice facility. Glenn James/NBAE Photos

Dirk pauses from making masks to take pictures with some of the students. Glenn James/NBAE Photos

Adam Harrington also read to the kids. Glenn James/NBAE Photos

Michael Finley reads to kids on the practice court of American Airlines Center. Danny Bollinger/dallasmavericks.com

Coach Don Nelson shows off his Halloween mask-making abilities today after practice. Danny Bollinger/dallasmavericks.com

Nick Van Exel helps some elementary school children with their halloween masks. Danny Bollinger/dallasmavericks.com