On Tuesday, January 31, the Warriors, Ross Stores and Reading Partners continued the Read To Achieve program to improve reading proficiency and fight summer learning loss among Bay Area elementary students. Joining Tuesday’s Reading Rally at San Francisco’s Bret Harte Elementary School was Warriors All-Star Forward Kevin Durant and 2015 NBA Champion Assistant Coach Ron Adams, who spent their afternoon sharing the importance of everyday reading with the students.
“I remember being in their shoes at that age so it’s exciting to give back by sharing the fun of reading a good book,” said Durant.
The 200 ecstatic young boys and girls packed the school auditorium and high-fived the affable 6’9 scorer as he walked onto the school stage with Coach Adams for a Q&A session with Warriors Hype Woman Ruby Lopez. Coach Adams shared with the students his love for learning and how reading can benefit them in whatever career or activity they want to enjoy.
“So many images, thought patterns and even a belief in ourselves can be formed and imagined through the written word,” said Adams. “[Reading] is like basketball in that you can’t succeed without mastering the fundamentals, so reading every day will take you all a long way.”
Durant and Coach Adams then grabbed copies of the children’s literature classic Frog and Toad Are Friends to read aloud to the students. Flanked by life-sized versions of Frog and Toad and TV monitors illustrating the story, the two Warriors read pages from the book and invited students from the Reading Partners program to join them on stage to read aloud to their classmates.
“We reinforce to the students that reading is fundamental and that if they love and excel at reading at a young age, the sky is the limit,” said Bret Harte Elementary Principal Jeremy Helinski.
When the tale reached the end, Durant, Adams and Lopez then asked the students a series of questions about the book to reinforce what they saw and heard. Students selected by Warriors Dance Team members Kaylee and Brianna provided their astute answers and then excitedly joined Durant and Coach Adams on stage to receive autographed team memorabilia.