CCU Players Read Book to Students: Football Team, United Way Visit Schools to Show How to Help, Share With Others
By Janelle Frost, The Sun News, Myrtle Beach, S.C.
Feb. 15–Several kindergartners at North Myrtle Beach Primary school stared in awe as a couple of Coastal Carolina University football players entered their classroom on Wednesday.
“Are you going to tackle me after this story?” 5-year-old Nicky Corrente asked player James Sims after Sims began reading a book to the students. Sims was among a group of CCU players and coaches who visited Horry County elementary and primary schools for the annual Caring for Kindergarten Kids program.
The program is a partnership between CCU’s Chanticleer football team and the United Way of Horry County, which announced Wednesday that it has met 99 percent of its $1.42 million annual fundraising goal. A victory luncheon is set for Feb. 28.
Other area United Way groups also are closing in on their goals, Cape Fear Area United Way, which serves Brunswick, Pender and New Hanover counties in North Carolina, has met 95 percent of its minimum $2 million goal, while the United Way in Georgetown County has met 63 percent of its $600,000 goal, officials say.
“We are confident that we will go over goal before the end of the month. We have several divisions that are very close to goal and all of these areas working together will get us to the overall goal,” said Julie Kopnicky, marketing and communications coordinator for United Way of Horry County.
But fundraising wasn’t the focus Wednesday for those participating in Caring for Kindergarten Kids, which focused on the children. The program gives coaches and football players the opportunity to read “The Giving Tree” story on Valentine’s Day to area kindergarten classes. It began in 2003.
After the reading, each student decorated a card for an elderly person living in Horry County.
The cards will be attached to a United Way of Horry County “May Day” basket to be delivered May 1.
This year, all schools in Horry County with kindergarten classes participated in the program, totaling 114 classes, according to United Way officials.
The schools involved include Aynor, Carolina Forest, Conway, Daisy, Forestbrook, Green Sea Floyds, Homewood, Kingston, Lakewood, Loris, Midland, Myrtle Beach, North Myrtle Beach, Ocean Bay, Palmetto Bays, Pee Dee, Seaside, Socastee, South Conway, St. James and Waccamaw.
“Coach [David] Bennett is big on asking coaches and players to give back to the community,” said Jamie Snider, one of CCU’s assistant coaches who volunteered with three players Wednesday at Waccamaw Elementary School.
“To those kids, the players might as well be playing for the Carolina Panthers. It never ceases to amaze me when their eyes light up when they see the players.”
On Wednesday morning, several kindergartners at Waccamaw eagerly surrounded their teacher — one by one — to show off the cards they made for area homebound senior citizens. The grinning students were pleased with the pictures they drew on the cards, which stated “Have a Good Day, We’re thinking about you!” or “Wishing you a Happy Day!”
Waccamaw’s kindergarten teacher Lindsay Byrum said she enjoys when the players come and looks forward to it.
“It’s an opportunity for the kids to hear a story and to meet new people,” Byrum said. “A lot of times these kids go home and don’t hear a story.”
CCU player Ryan Boehm, 20, read “The Giving Tree” to Byrum’s class.
The children’s book, written by Shel Silverstein, is a tale about the relationship between a young boy and a tree in a forest.
The tree loves the boy and the boy plays with the tree all the time until he ages and says he can no longer play with the tree. So he begins asking the tree for different things until the tree becomes nothing more than a stump.
With nothing left to give, the tree becomes a resting and sitting place for the boy who is now an old man, which makes the tree happy.
Although the story has been interpreted in many ways, the players and coaches who visited the classes Wednesday said it’s to teach kids about giving and caring for others.
“The kids love it,” said Cathie Mahan, kindergarten assistant at North Myrtle Beach Primary. “It’s great to know that these young men are in our community and still come every year.”
Jamie Snider — one of CCU’s assistant coaches who volunteered with three players Wednesday at Waccamaw Elementary School
Contact JANELLE FROST at 443-2404 or jfrost@thesunnews.com [mailto:jfrost@thesunnews.com].
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Copyright (c) 2007, The Sun News, Myrtle Beach, S.C.
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