New Jersey Nets mascot Sly the Fox was busy in Jersey City Tuesday offering photographs, entertaining children, and playing jokes on adults. Sly was bringing his usual gametime antics to a different type of celebration, as the NBA, the Nets, and special guests were there to open the Nets Reading and Learning Center at the Boys and Girls Club of Hudson County.
Although the Nets are in midst of playing in the NBA Finals, basketball was the farthest thing from anyone’s mind. The reading and learning center was the NBA’s 61st since they started the Read to Achieve program in 2001.
The Nets Reading and Learning Center, which consists of a series of rooms in the club, will be filled with computers, printers, and software donated by Dell, as well as books and resources donated by Scholastic Inc. and Reading is Fundamental, Inc. (RIF). The Nets and Devils Foundation will continue to donate funds and resources to the center along with visits from players.
All 30 NBA teams and 14 WNBA teams have been involved in supporting and funding reading and learning centers, but the two teams competing in the NBA finals were chosen to open centers in the area during the series.
“It’s all about recognizing that to get into the game, you have to read,” said David Stern, commissioner of the NBA. “We continue to work and serve these bright and shining faces, but the purpose is to have children develop a lifelong love of reading.”
The opening ceremony for the event was hosted by basketball great Bob Lanier, who was heavily influenced by the Boys and Girls Club while growing up in Buffalo, N.Y. Lanier stressed that the single focus of Read to Achieve is to help children learn to read and love to read.
“Reading helps children to build self-confidence and self esteem,” he said.
Among those in attendance were NBA Hall of Famer and Nets Vice President Willis Reed, NBA TV reporter Joumana Kidd (wife of Nets guard Jason Kidd), Nets announcer Joe Piscopo, former New York Liberty WNBA player Kim Hampton, Nets center Dikembe Mutombo, and Gov. James McGreevey, who last year launched the Governor’s Book Club as part of his goal to ensure that New Jersey youths develop the lifelong habit of reading.
“We have a major concern in this country,” said McGreevey. “There is a 9 percent chance that children will become ‘age-appropriate literate.’ Most children by the third grade will not be ‘age-appropriate literate.’ “
McGreevey continued by posing a challenge to the approximately 150 youths and adults sitting in the audience.
“I ask you to turn off the TV, pick up a book, and read,” McGreevey said. “If you can read, you can achieve anything before you in this great country. This is your future, and your future will be determined by how much you read.”
Cutting the ribbon
After congratulatory words, McGreevey, Stern, and the other guests walked to the new reading and learning center for a ribbon-cutting ceremony, officially opening the Nets Reading and Learning Center. Other post-ceremony events included Mutombo and McGreevey taking turns reading to a group of 20 wide-eyed children, and other guests assisting children in using the new Quantum Pad Learning Systems, made by LeapFrog.
Currently, the staff at the Boys and Girls Club is busy preparing and developing curriculum and lesson plans that will incorporate the new resources into their forthcoming summer program.
“We’ve been given a gift,” said Gary Greenberg, executive director of the Boys and Girls Club in Jersey City. “This is the best moment of the club and the highlight of the club in the 28 years I have been here.”
Greenberg is grateful to the NBA, the Nets and Gov. McGreevey for bringing the importance of reading to the children.
“These are their heroes, the people they idolize,” said Greenberg. “The children look up to these people. Seeing their heroes read and stress the importance of reading has jumpstarted and renewed their interest in reading.”
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