NEW ORLEANS – The New Orleans women's basketball program had members of the team participate in the Read to the Final Four School Visit at Lawrence Crocker College Prep on Wednesday morning.
The visiting Privateers met the second-grade class at the school to share the importance of reading as they further their education along with having some time to compete with the students in basketball trivia and word games. The New Orleans student-athletes also got the opportunity to read with the elementary students.
"Today I got the chance to read to the kids at Crocker with my teammates and it was great," junior
Dionjhae Thomas said. "The kids were so interested in reading. It was exciting to see students that age so engaged in reading books."
"As I was reading to them, they were giving me feedback and asking to read the books themselves," she added with a laugh. "That was interesting because as a kid I didn't always like reading but they understand how important it is to read books daily. I want to thank Crocker for having us and I would love to come back and volunteer to work with these kids again in the future."
"My experience today was wonderful," freshman
Mary Delgado said. "Seeing kids that actually want to partake in a conversation dealing with reading and the importance of it was great to see. As a young kid I did enjoy reading a lot and others didn't, so it was amazing seeing another generation enjoy and take reading seriously. It was absolutely heartwarming. I had an amazing time with them today."
The event was part of a series of community service programs that local universities will partake in as the city gets set to host the 2020 NCAA Women's Basketball Final Four right here in New Orleans.
The Read to the Final Four is a reading program and contest for local youth set up by the NCAA and the host committee that encourages and inspires local students to achieve reading growth as the Final Four looks to leave a lasting impact on the city. The program strives to assist schools with literacy efforts with incentives to promote literacy and higher education, expand classroom and school libraries through donations and to expose young students to NCAA athletics and create opportunities to attend collegiate events.
The University of New Orleans is partnering with the Sugar Bowl, Tulane University and the Greater New Orleans Sports Foundation to host the NCAA Women's Final Four which will be held April 3-5 at the Smoothie King Center.
Complete information on the Read to the Final Four New Orleans competetion can be found here.
The latest on the upcoming NCAA Women's Final Four including game, ticket, and free entertainment and program information can be found at this link.
