Commitment All The Way: Literacy4Life, @cwpfairfield, @fairfieldu, @hoops4HopeUSA

My first thought was to wait outside for all the middle school kids leaving Wooster Middle School. I knew I had enough needles, but I didn't have enough bodies (yes, I know that sounds strange and probably wrong). I did have, however, 100+ basketballs donated from The Rick Barry Basketball School that were donated for work with Hoops4Hope. At this moment in time two Fairfield University students are overseas in Zimbabwe doing on-the-ground work with coaches and players, make a tremendous impact through literacy and sport. I sent them with several books (including those written by Kwame Alexander) and they brought over their passion, intelligence and skills.

Yet, how was I going to deflate all these basketballs so they would fit in my car to bring over to Long Island for their trip to Africa?

I thought I'd recruit middle school students walking home (or asking the parents of several of my neighbors). The more the merrier, right?

Alas, my day began at 7:30 a.m. (Committee on the Board of Trustees meeting) at Fairfield University and I didn't end up back home until 8 p.m. (Guns in the Hands of Artists opening night).

All day I worked with phenomenal graduate students from the Graduate School of Education to mail out the 2017 (yes, I know it's 2018) edition of Power of Words, the anthology of student writing that has been edited over the last year (phenomenal pieces written last summer). We stuffed almost 200 envelopes, put stickers on a note, labeled addresses to and from, and got them to the post office by 2 p.m. - I should also mention that my summer supplies were delivered by truck yesterday morning and I spent the first few hours after my first meeting, putting supplies away).  The graduate students got into the swing of things and I told them they were like the workers who were hired to find a Golden Ticket for Varuka Salts. We even got the post office staff working in our rhythm. We accomplished a lot quickly. I am thrilled to say, POW! is in the mail and it is wonderful.

I managed to get a haircut, too. Don't ask.

Meanwhile, I went to the art exhibit (more to come) that debuted at the Walsh Gallery in the Quick Center. Last week, I worked with 140 8th grade students in Greenwich who wrote in response to what they wanted to #UNLOAD (and who, a group of them, were asked to perform at last night's opening). The show is amazing.

But, at 8 p.m., when I got home, I knew I had a task at hand. I missed the middle school students. It was too late. I looked to my phone to see if Chitunga texted about what time he'd be home from college and, lucky for me, he pulled in the driveway. We unpacked his car for an hour and then began the basketball deflation. I had four pump needles, so we got quite the assembly line going. By 11, we ordered pizza and finished bagging our last deflated ball.

Phew! This is for the love of literacy. The love for Literacy4Life. The love for Hoops4Hope and the ways sports, reading and writing go hand in hand.

Big CWP day, and now we drive these deflated basketballs to Amagansett for the weekend, where there's a Board meeting to attend, followed by some sand on the toes.