UWM Athletics Honors Black History Month Through Virtual Read Along

UW-Milwaukee coaches and athletes continued fostering a relationship with students in the Next Door Program by participating in the virtual read-along in honor of Black History Month. 

From the tales of “Jabari Tries” and “Jabari Jumps” from the author Gaia Cornwall, to the piece from the two-time Kirk Prize recipient Derrick Barnes and his “I Am Every Good Thing,” athletes and coaches were able to further establish connections to the surrounding community. 

The Next Door Foundation’s mission is all about giving back to the community, making sure that every child, even those with limited resources get the same start as everyone else. UWM began a partnership with Next Door Foundation last year with monthly visits from athletes and coaches, according to Leah Thyne, Assistant of AD Marketing for UWM Athletics. 

“Sometimes athletes would play with students during recess, participate in the Read With Me, prepare donated books for their library, volunteer at special events and even adopted a family for the holidays.” said Thyne. 

The only difference this year is the read-along took place virtually, being posted to the UWM Athletics Youtube page. Athletes and coaches were able to read to a crowd of students versus the one-on-one reading they would normally do in person. 

“The Next Door Foundation had a list of books chosen for Black History Month that they were interested in community members virtually reading to the kids,” said Thyne. “These virtual readings are a way to hopefully foster a connection between the students and our athletes and coaches.” 

Head Men’s Basketball Coach, Pat Baldwin, read the book “I Am Every Good Thing.” This book followed and African-American boy describing all the things he is. One quote from the book that stuck out to Baldwin was “I am roaring flame of creativity.  I am a lightning round of questions and a star filled sky of solutions.  I am sponge soaking up information, knowledge and wisdom.  I want it all…”. 

“I grew up in a place where you weren’t supposed to ask questions,” said Baldwin. “This allows the reader to know they can ask questions and through research find all of the solutions.” 

Baldwin also mentioned he enjoyed the use of the word sponge, as it shows the intention of soaking up as much information and knowledge as possible until they have it all. 

Megan Safranski, a member of the UWM Track and Field team, read the book “Jabari Tries.” One of the pages in this book illustrates several different engineers and scientists such as inventor Lewis Howard Latimer and Dr. Flossie Wong-Staal. All the listed engineers and scientists were also minorities, from Chinese-American to African-American. Readers found this to be important for a young audience. 

“Our young African-American audience needs to know they are gifted and through knowledge they can be impactful in this world they live in and be relentless in their pursuit for greatness,” said Baldwin. 

Many of the stories had similar themes about being strong, never giving up, appreciating who you are and being true to yourself.  

The books all followed African-American characters, and many of the authors and illustrators were also African-American. Jasper Appleton, a member of the UWM Men’s Swim and Dive team, read “I Am Perfectly Designed” from Queer Eye’s Karamo Brown. 

“I Am Perfectly Designed” followed the relationship between a young African-American boy and his father as they walk down memory lane and reminisce about the ways in which the boy is perfectly designed. It was inspired by Brown’s own relationship with his father. 

All the athletes and coaches who participated in the read-along did so on a volunteer basis.  

“I really enjoyed being a part of this initiative and hopefully put a smile on the faces of all of the readers,” said Baldwin.