Hitting the books for basketball tickets
New program offered to area elementary school children
Archived article from Feb 4, 2000
By Douglas Frank
Combining athletics with scholarship, Rutgers is offering Middlesex County's elementary-school children two tickets to women's basketball games in return for reading 10 books each.
Some 350 elementary-school pupils from Highland Park came to the Jan. 15 Scarlet Knights game against Villanova under the program "RU Reading Into the Game."
Children who volunteered for the program were given a special bookmark with 10 spaces to enter the books they read. The bookmarks were then signed by the teachers and sent back to Rutgers by the principals.
Kevin MacConnell, associate athletic director for external affairs, said the program was so successful it is being expanded to the entire county for the women's Feb. 6 game against Syracuse. About 1,500 to 2,000 pupils are participating.
The program may be expanded in the fall to include a varsity football game and men's and women's soccer, said MacConnell.
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