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UCLA Bruin Football players Jibril Raymo, Ed Blanton and Alex Potasi along with Assistant Director of Academic Services Ed Kezirian visited with hundreds of elementary students at Mayo Elementary School in Compton as part of the Read Across America program. Each student-athlete visited multiple classrooms as they read Dr. Suess' tongue twisting stories and other children's books, taught them the UCLA 8-clap, signed autographs, and talked about how reading has impacted their lives. To put the finishing touch on the football trip to Compton, Ed Kezirian had the children in dance mode as did his annual reading of "Chica Chica Boom Boom", a Mayo Elementary favorite.
Later that day, 16 members from the UCLA Women's Track and Field team also made their way to Compton as they visited the Compton Unified School District main office to take part in the Read Across America program. As they arrived, they were greeted by hundreds of middle school students who were bussed in from local area schools for the annual program. Each student-athlete took their time reading to groups of 5-6 children at a time, discussing the importance of reading. Once the reading time had concluded, the children stayed a bit longer to get their autographs and pictures taken with their reading role models.
"It was a humbling experience just knowing that so many kids were positively affected by us donating only a few minutes of our day", stated Freshman hurdler Dawn Harper.
"It was memorable for us as athletes and for the children as growing adolescents".
Many of the athletes had commented on how rewarding this experience was, and also expressed their desire to participate in Read Across America again next year.
Read Across America is an annual literacy program run in schools across the country and is held in conjunction with the birthday of the late legendary children's author Dr. Seuss. The program is designed to raise awareness of the importance of reading and to encourage children to improve their reading skills. Each year, individuals in the community are invited to schools to read to the students and to serve as role models. For more information about this event, please visit the website at www.nea.org/readacross/