BETHLEHEM, Pa. --- The Moravian College men's and women's basketball squads have taken time over the last week while being on campus during the semester break to take part in community service, particularly with the Cops 'n' Kids Literacy Program.
The 30 Greyhound student-athletes traveled to Thomas Jefferson Elementary School, William Penn Elementary School and Fountain Hill Elementary School in the Bethlehem Area School District with Cops 'n' Kids to read books and spend time in the classrooms with the students. Cops 'n' Kids distributes free books, over 1,037,151 according to their website (http://www.copsnkidslv.org/) with Moravian helping give out over 1,000 books over the week. On Friday, January 17 the Greyhounds attended Fountain Hill to be part of the school's Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Celebration.
"I really enjoy going to the schools since it gets us all off the court together for a bit," stated junior forward Jordan Beneducci from the women's squad. "The team has been pretty successful this year, but it's incredible that these kids don't care whether we are 10-0 or 0-10. It's a nice reminder that's there's a lot more to this team than the plays that we run and games we play. Being able to see how much this team means to the community is one of the many reasons I'm grateful to be a part of this team."
Over the years, Moravian has made community service as major part of basketball their programs especially during the semester break when the teams just have practice, shoot arounds and games that leave free time to fill. Moravian's entire Department of Athletics, led by Director of Athletics and Head Women's Basketball Coach Mary Beth Spirk has made giving back to the community a big role for student-athletes with after school programs with the Boys and Girls Club of Bethlehem and Marvine Elementary School in addition to working with Cops 'n' Kids and other projects throughout the year.
Both of Moravian's basketball teams will be in action on Saturday, January 18 in a Landmark Conference doubleheader at Juniata College in Huntingdon with tip-off for the men's game at 2:00 p.m. and the women's contest to follow at 4:00 p.m.
