Only Me

Today I drove the van for Husky Sport. There were four athletes in the van, Allison Karpiak, Bethany Semlear, Donnell Beverly and Kemba Walker. I have half of those people's autographs.

If you guessed that I have the two field hockey players you know me way to well and you would be correct. I am the only person who can say that.

Why do I have their autographs?

That is a GREAT question.

No I did not ask for them, instead an autographed photo for charity got ruined in the rain. They were going to throw the photo away, but I looked at it and thought it was still in an ok condition and thought it would go well on my game room wall. It hasn't been framed yet, but I will put it one. They were 2009 Big East Champs.

I was the public announcer for the team this past season so I thought it would be cool to have that picture as a way of remembering what I did, and also remembering whose names were difficult to announce.

Donnell Beverly and Kemba Walker were both polite and apparently challenged the kids at Clark Elementary school to some basketball.

By the way I was happy, and not surprised that UConn beat Villanova.

I enjoy Husky Sport because I love spending time with the kids at Clark Elementary school. They are fun to be around. Last year I spent almost all of my time in the gym. I spent time with kindergartners and first graders last year and we often played basketball and duck duck goose. I am a natural in the gym and love being in there.

This year I have gone to the classroom and have continued to work with some of the same kids as last year. This time I am doing some things that I need some practice at like drawing, and acting. I have learned that I am not good at conducting Simon says or at drawing, but thats ok! The kids like it when they are better than me at things. I may not be as good in the classroom as I am in the gym, but I like staying with the same kids and getting to know them.

It is remarkable to see how much the program has grown since I got involved last year.

Like last year, this year we have the Read and Raise challenge for the children at three Elementary schools in Hartford, the Clark, Wish and MLK Elementary Schools.

The challenge is to get each school to read 10,000 books, with the best classrooms receiving prizes like in-school recess and gifts.

The other goal is to raise a dollar for each book read and donate it to Emeka Okafor's One for One Safe Blood initiative. Okafor, a former standout UConn Basketball Student Athlete (he graduated with a finance degree in three years and was a first round NBA pick) donated a large amount of money to the program and as a way to thank him for his generosity Husky Sport will donate back to his Safe Blood initiative.

http://www.education.uconn.edu/research/HuskySport/video2009.cfm

http://www.education.uconn.edu/research/HuskySport/video_safeblood.cfm

http://www.education.uconn.edu/research/huskysport/read-and-raise-2010/