The Boston Celtics and Southern New Hampshire University have been working together to better the local community since 2012, and have teamed up again this year to help boost literacy among sixth-graders throughout Boston public schools.
The Read to Achieve initiative has had three events involving the Celtics this season, starting with the Gardner Pilot Academy in Allston which was hosted by Celtics alumnus and Boston native Dana Barros.
The initiative, which aims to elevate interest in reading and improving literacy among local youth, later held two more such events — one at the Auerbach Center and another at the Everett Elementary School in Dorchester.
At the Auerbach center, the event included Cedric Maxwell and Kyle Draper of NBC Sports Boston reading a book called Those Shoes, and finished with the duo helping kids design their own custom shoes.
The Everett Elementary School event had shooting guard Jaylen Brown read Hidden Figures: The True Story of Four Black Women and the Space Race to about 30 students.
Brown said at the time (via WBZ Boston’s Davis Wade) that he hoped “they think that the possibilities are endless, that they set their minds to things and push through adversity, [and] that they can get to their objectives or their goals” at the time.”
While it’s never guaranteed that programs like these will succeed at changing a student’s life, the goals of increasing literacy will help give them the tools they need for life’s challenges, and to assist them with realizing their goals.
