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BOSTON – The Boston Celtics teamed up with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Wednesday afternoon to provide students at the BTU Pilot School in Boston with a morning of excitement and education.
By partnering with the Mayor’s initiative, ReadBoston, the Celtics and HMH work together to emphasize the importance of literacy in Boston Public Schools. The program known as Read to Achieve gives kids the tools to improve their education through an incentivized approach.
The youth participating in the program filed into the school’s gymnasium on Wednesday for an award assembly for reaching the reading goal that was set during the previous month.
Celtics forward Jonas Jerebko and HMH Senior Vice President of Digital Marketing for Trade Sanj Kharbanda joined other Celtics VIPs for a group read-aloud with the deserving students.
Peter Golenbock’s “Teammates,” was the story that was read during the assembly. It focuses on the value of working together as a team, using the example of Jackie Robinson, the first African American player in Major League Baseball. The biographical story taught the youth of the struggles Robinson faced, and of the teammates who stood up for him in the face of adversity.
Following the read-aloud, the group discussed the various issues the book brought up and how it related to their own lives.
Jerebko shared his personal insight of being on a team and the significance of being a supportive friend when teammates are in need of a shoulder to lean on.
Following suit, Kharbanda shared how teamwork extends beyond the field of play and that each day we need to work together for the common good.
At the end of the event, Kharbanda announced the donation of new books to the school’s library on behalf of HMH, and each student left with a personal copy of the Robinson tale.
Meanwhile, the VIPs departed with the hope that the students were inspired to research other pioneers in their respective fields and learn even more lessons of working together with others to make a difference in society.