Rider Women's Basketball Participates In MAAC Gives Back Program
Rider Sports Information
ALBANY, N.Y.?In town for its nationally televised Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference game against Siena, the Rider University women’s basketball team took time out of its schedule to visit Shaker Road Elementary School in Albany, New York Friday morning.
As part of the MAAC Gives Back Community Service program and the Rider Athletics Partners in a Caring Community initiative, the Broncs visited the first grade class of Ms. Framents.
With Albany and the Times Union Center hosting the 2009 MAAC Basketball Championships March 5-9, all MAAC men’s and women’s basketball programs were adopted by schools in the area with the kids exchanging letters with the student-athletes during the season.
During the visit, the Bronc women’s basketball team personally dropped off their latest correspondence allowing the kids to put a name to the face of their pen-pal. The Rider players posed for photographs and brought media guides and posters that the kids were able to have autographed.
“It is important for our players to connect with kids in the community,” said assistant coach John Miller who helped organize the event. “They [the children] were very excited to see our team and our team was excited to have a chance to meet their pen-pals in person. It was a very rewarding experience for everyone involved. As a staff, we wanted to give the kids a chance to meet the team in person and make the letter writing more meaningful.”
The Broncs will face the Siena Saints at the Times Union Center on ESPNU at 4:30pm Friday afternoon.