Baseball & Volleyball Visit Local Elementary Schools
11/15/2014 6:34:00 PM | Baseball
KENT, Ohio- Despite the Kent State volleyball team preparing for its final two home games of the year this weekend, members of the squad visited Woodland Elementary in Stow on Friday, while Kent State baseball players were out in Ravenna at West Main Elementary.Â
"Reading to the kids is a great opportunity to give back to our community for everything they do for us," said junior baseball player Eli Martin. "It provides us a chance to be positive role models and emphasize that reading and learning is cool."
"It's been really fun to visit different elementary schools and interact with the students. It kind of brings me back to some of the fun times I had in elementary school," said senior Liz Reikow.  "They all get really excited when we first arrive and I think that all of the students have fun with us. We probably get just as excited as the students do about the visits."
Members of the volleyball and baseball teams have been assigned to classrooms at the elementary schools where they work with the children one-on-one and in small groups on reading and math skills.Â
"West Main Elementary has had the wonderful opportunity to have the volleyball and baseball teams visit this year to work with our students," said Principal Dr. Deborah Grant. "The students love each time the Kent State student-athletes visit and are excited to work with them in the classroom. It's a great program and we would love to have a group of athletes come every week."Â
"We have worked with different grade levels throughout the fall and our interaction is a little different each time," added Reikow. "We've read to them and helped them with different assignments they were working on. There have also been times when they've been able to ask us questions and we have been able to talk to them about being an athlete and how important it is to do well in school in order to play a sport in college."
