May 4, 2014
Life for a student-athlete can get busy with practice, school work, games and so much more. However, many of the student-athletes on The Hill find time in their schedule to give back to the Bowling Green community, and that's what the WKU softball team has been doing this season.
Most recently, the Lady Toppers kicked off their "Big Red's Readers" program. The initiative is an extension of a program that WKU softball assistant coach K.C. Boldt was part of at a former school called "Reading Buddies."
"Reading Buddies is a donation-drive program that puts stuffed animals into the hands of first and second-grade students in the Bowling Green School District," Boldt said. "These stuffed animals are given to the students to be used as a 'reading buddy' throughout the school year. Each child 'adopts' their buddy and reads to them for a minimum of 15 minutes each day. This program has successfully raised reading comprehension scores in 106 elementary schools in the northwest Indiana region, and WKU would love the community's support to further this initiative in Bowling Green."
WKU softball partnered with Elizabeth Grant's first grade class from Dishman-McGinnis Elementary in Bowling Green.
"I think this program is great," Grant said. "Anytime the kids can read to other people, it helps them a great deal."
WKU plans to work with Ms. Grant's class and then pick up more classes in the future.
A pageant geared toward girls ages 6-12, it was Austin's vision for the pageant to inspire young African-American girls and teach them that true beauty comes from the inside. With that, the softball student-athletes traveled to Parker Bennett in Bowling Green and taught the young girls the importance of exercise and staying active. The softball players taught them a couple of exercises that the girls could do day-to-day to stay healthy and in shape, including lunges, jogging in place, jumping jacks and sit-ups.
"I think it is important to be involved in the community as athletes in a community that has a college," said freshman Kathryn Downing. "It's fun to light up a kid's day, and you know that you had an impact on them."
"To these young girls, it meant a lot to them that they came out here," said Austin. "They are going to remember their faces, so when they see them out in public, they are going to say 'Hey-you taught me that class.' They don't get to see things like this from the community, so that meant a lot."
