Brewer and Wilkins Kick-Off Black History Month
Lindsey YoungWolves Writer
“He wanted to bring peace to everybody.” This was one way that a young student at Whittier International School described Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on Tuesday afternoon. One end of the elementary school’s gymnasium filled quickly with 160+ second- and third-graders that participated in a Reading Timeout with Timberwolves players Damien Wilkins and Corey Brewer. Oh, and Crunch of course.
The reading was hosted by Hennepin County Medical Center as part of the FastBreak Foundation’s Black History Month recognition. Timberwolves broadcaster Jim Petersen played the role of emcee for the reading, and did a fantastic job of getting the kids pumped up and prepared for the event.
As is typical for the fun-loving mascot, Crunch began the program by bursting out of a storage room and spraying the crowd of shrieking students with bright orange silly string. As an added bonus for the kids, he finished off the can on one of the teachers standing against a wall.
With a little help from Crunch’s reliable clapping routine, the group settled down just long enough to be introduced to Brewer and Wilkins before they erupted into another round of applause and cheers. Petersen asked the students some questions to test their knowledge of the athletes in front of them. “Does anybody know what college Corey attended?” Petersen prompted. Brewer (who actually played for the University of Florida) couldn’t help laughing when one young girl answered “Minnesota,” followed immediately by a student who yelled, “The University of Canada!”
The kids were then given opportunities to ask questions of the players. While a couple students rose their hands to ask how many years Wilkins and Brewer had been playing basketball in the NBA or how tall they are, one brave third grader walked right up to the microphone and boldly questioned, “Are you going to give us tickets?”
Before actually diving into the book, the players talked to the group a little about the importance of reading and starting the trend of a good education while young. Wilkins explained that he was always brought up being told that “you can never learn enough,” and he passed this advice on to the young students. “They look at us as someone from the outside looking in,” he later reflected. “They hear their teachers’ voices everyday, so to hear it from someone else makes it resonate more. And hopefully, at the end of the day, the lesson is that you can never learn too much. Hopefully we’ve encouraged them to pick up a book and read more.” Brewer added on to the importance of having outside individuals come in to stress the importance of reading and education to the children. “When I was a kid, I always wanted to become a professional athlete,” he said. “So, if Michael Jordan would have come and told me something, I probably would have listened more to him than to my teachers.”
Petersen, Wilkins, and Brewer also each emphasized the importance of Black History Month and recognizing the impact that Martin Luther King had on the Civil Rights movement in our nation. The kids responded with excitement and it was obvious that, despite their young age, most of them had at least some understanding of MLK’s legacy.
Brewer explained how he had learned about the history of Martin Luther King. “We talked about [King] some in school, but at my house—my mom, she taught me all about him, Frederick Douglas, Harriet Tubman, Rosa Parks,” he said. “When I got to school I did learn some extra stuff, but I already knew a lot about him.”
Wilkins and Brewer read the students a book entitled Meet Martin Luther King, Junior, by Johnny Ray Moore. The story illustrated King’s experience and explained the background of the minister’s passion for peace and civil rights in America. Moore's book explained King’s educational background, love for his family and for God, and also introduced other influential figures such as George Washington Carver and Mahatma Ghandi.
The players were honored to help the school celebrate the take-off of Black History Month. “Dr. King is a role model for all of us. The kids look up to us, and some of them aren’t quite old enough yet to understand the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King,” Wilkins said. “They’ll learn more about him as they grow up, but we can never be as much of a hero. We try our hardest, because we know that they do look up to us.”
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