Blazers Sabonis center of Students attention

The multilingual basketball player reads and converses in Spanish
with youngsters at Barnes Elementary School

The Smart program moved Wednesday from its usual room in the 
basement of Barnes Elementary School to the library.

The 7-foot 3-inch Arvydas Sabonis dropped his head so low it 
disappeared beneath his broad shoulders as he lumbered through 
the doorway of the room where the Beaverton kids usually spend a 
half-hour reading with an adult.

The half-dozen children followed Sabonis toward the 20-foot 
ceilings in the library, where he could stand tall with with a 
growing number of children in tow, like a Pied Piper of 
literature.

The Trail Blazer's center sank into an overstuffed couch in the corner
of the room, opened "Clifford the Big Red Dog" and began to read to the
children.

In Spanish.

Sabonis, a native of Lithuania, spent several years playing hoops 
in Spain, adding Spanish to his mastery of five languages. So he 
read and chatted easily with the Spanish-speaking children 
Wednesday

afternoon. About one in five of the more than 500 students at 
Barnes speaks Spanish as a first language.

"It's so validating for the children to have someone who is cool 
to read to them in their own language," said Mary Jubitz, 
executive director of the children's foundation, which has run 
the Portland reading program "Start Making a Reader Today" for 
the past five years.

Since it began in eight schools in 1992, Smart has provided about 
330,000 volunteer hours matching adults with children who need 
help learning to read. It has given away nearly 200,000 books to 
children. This year the program operates in 109 schools in 11 
counties across Oregon.

Smart has just embarked on a three-year campaign to nearly double 
the number of children in the program each year, from 5,000 to 
10,000. Nike Inc. is the program's largest corporate donor, 
recently having pledged $200,000 in each of the next three years.

Smart asks for an hour each week from adult volunteers to read 
one on one with students in elementary schools. Each Smart 
student is given two books a month to take home for family 
reading.

On Wednesday, Sabonis' quiet Schwarzenegger voice demanded 
attention from the children who had to battle their excitement 
and urges to whisper and giggle as they waited for the chance to 
pepper Sabonis with questions.

"Hey, Arvydas! The last time I saw you, you were playing the 
Clippers, and you did this," one of the boys said as he executed 
an imaginary behind-the-head slam dunk. "Do you remember?"

"I remember every play," Sabonis said.

A beaming 9-year-old Cezar Perez could not remember much about 
the book Sabonis read, but he knew what he and Sabonis talked 
about.

Perez asked Sabonis about Michael Jordan and which of them might 
be taller.

Sabonis wins that contest.

"And he gave me a Blazer T-shirt, and he signed my book," Perez 
said, opening his copy of "NBA ACTION," an ABC book, to show 
Sabonis' signature.

The visit was part of the NBA's National TeamUp, a league-wide 
day of volunteering to get the athletes and front offices 
involved with their communities.