on the path
By Claire Miller
Reading More Than Playbooks
Photo courtesy of Patrick Gallaway
New Albany football, cheerleading teams give back each fall
F
or the past 11 years, a special event has taken place at New Albany-Plain Local Schools. The gesture might be simple, but its impact is profound. Each fall, senior players on the New Albany High School football team take an hour of their day each week to travel to the Early Learning Center. There, in groups of two or three, they are designated a kindergarten class to read to once a week for several weeks. The simple act of standing in front of the class and reading a picture book 14
New Albany High School cheerleader Sydney Hutton reads a picture book to a preschool classroom at the New Albany Early Learning Center last fall as part of the Eagles Give Back reading program.
is enough to create a strong connection between the seniors and kindergarteners. “It’s a full circle moment – it bridges our community together because our oldest learners come back to encourage and be with our younger learners and a lot of these boys remember when they were read to,” says educational assistant Denise Johnson, who heads up the Eagles Give Back Reading Program. “It’s something that our seniors look forward to every single year.”
Each time they meet, the players read one to two books to the class, take questions from the students and leave them with a gift. For the last session, the players handed out stickers and their own custom playing cards. “They really look up to these kids so a lot of our kids will go to the football games now to see their player,” Johnson says. “(For) these boys, it’s the highlight of their senior year to be able to come back and have kids be excited to see www.healthynewalbanymagazine.com
