In the spirit of the season, 25 Temple student athletes visited Dunbar Elementary School on Dec. 1 to spend time with the Philadelphia school children and read from a selection of popular new books and old favorites.

The entire school — students from kindergarten through eighth grade — filled Dunbar’s auditorium for the reading, which featured athletes from Temple’s football, tennis, lacrosse, baseball, soccer, crew, field hockey and gymnastics teams.

The event was held in support of the Fifth Annual Temple University Alumni Holiday Book Drive. Sponsored by the Alumni Association, the Black Alumni Alliance and the College of Education, the drive benefits students in local primary schools such as Dunbar. Through Dec. 31, donors can purchase books from an Amazon.com wish list pre-selected for primary school children of all ages. Orders will be delivered directly to the Alumni Association and distributed to schools in the neighborhoods surrounding Temple’s Main Campus. Last year, more than 1,500 books were donated through the drive.

The event offered the children a preview of books they might receive through the drive as a way of building their interest in reading them. Similar events have been held in area schools in the past several years, but this was by far the biggest and the first to involve student athletes, who even led the enthusiastic audience in singing the Temple Fight Song.

“We thought it would be wonderful for the kids to see who’s giving the books and to meet the students from Temple to give them something to aspire to,” said Valarie Gay, assistant dean for Institutional Advancement in the College of Education.  “The kids and teachers were thrilled to be with Temple students.”

For full information on how to donate, visit myowlspace.com/bookdrive.

— Elizabeth DiPardo