Kid's Travel the Globe at the Pistons' 2002 Read to Achieve Kick Off Event
 Ben Wallace and Tayshaun Prince hand out flags in China Allen Einstein/NBAE Getty Images |
The students traveled to over 15 different reading stations representing various countries from around the world, where they read and listened to stories with the memebers of the Detroit Pistons, Swin Cash and Astou Ndyiae-Diatta from the Detroit Shock, United States Senator Debbie Stabenow, Congressmen John Conyers and Sander Levin, Congresswoman Carolyn Cheeks-Kilpatrick, Carlita Kilpatrick-the wife of Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, and Superintendent for State Department of Education Tom Watkins. Detroit Pistons Mascot Hooper and the Detroit Free Press yak were getting in on the fun, along with television news and sports anchors, newspaper reporters and radio show hosts.
Read to Achieve, presented by the Michigan Education Savings Program, is designed to promote reading and literacy to children and families in Michigan and has been recognized as one of the top programs in the NBA. The goal is to instill a life-long love of reading in young people, and to provide greater access to books and technology in our community. The Detroit Pistons launched Read to Achieve in October 2001 and now have over 120 adult “All-Star” reading team members.
Detroit Pistons players and staff have devoted their time to share the love of reading with over 3,000 students at Read to Achieve events throughout southeastern Michigan, touching over 40,000 youth with this program. The Pistons have also given the students a gift of books to take home.
 Chucky Atkins signs autographs in Saudi Arabia Allen Einstein/NBAE Getty Images |
“I think reading is very educational, especially for these younger kids. Everything now is based upon knowledge and your ability to read. It is very helpful and it is good for these guys to start early. A lot of the kids look up to us. They see us on the basketball court. I think with us stressing the importance of reading they will take heed and learn to read and start educating themselves.”
Pistons Head Coach Rick Carlisle:
“I think this is a great opportunity for our players and myself to get involved with grade-school kids and to talk about the importance of being able to read and getting excited about it. There’s nothing more important to the future of a child or anyone than their ability to read and explore new and different things. We’re very proud and happy to be a part of it.”
Shock Forward Swin Cash:
“I think reading means a lot to the kids. Not only the reading, but to come out and have this opportunity to read with celebrities makes it special. It’s an honor for me to be here. I remember growing up that my friends and I would always try to form the babysitter’s club and we read those books and loved them. We were trying to emulate what was going on in the books, so reading definitely gives you the opportunity for adventure and to live through books.”
 Swin Cash reads to children in Germany Allen Einstein/NBAE Getty Images |
“It was fun. It was actually more fun than I expected. The kids were happy and were joyful. The kids were able to see that reading can take them somewhere. That is a nice thing about reading. Reading helped me escape as a child. Whether I was mad or had problems, I picked up my book and did my thing. This was an enjoyable time.”
Pistons Forward Ben Wallace:
“It’s a great thing, especially when you interact with kids. Kids remember things like this for a long time. We had a chance to read a couple books and share a couple poignant stories with them. It’s going to mean a lot to them.”
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