Heisman Trophy Returns to Washington Elementary School (So Does Summer Reading Grant)

Children at Washington Elementary School in Manchester were treated to a rare occurrence last week - but one that has grown common at the school. 

Members of the Heisman Trophy Trust, a children's author and several University of Connecticut football players stopped by the local elementary school on Friday, June 7, 2013, to again kickoff a reading grant that the school has received for each of the past three years from the Heisman Trophy Trust. 

The Heisman Trophy, the most prestigious award in college football, was also on hand during the event, which included remarks by author Lynda Mullaly Hunt, Bill Dockery, president of the Heisman Trophy Trust, and UConn starting quarterback Chandler Whitmer and middle linebacker Yawin Smallwood.  

This marks the third year in a row that Washington Elementary School has received this grant, valued at $20,000. The previous two years, Nathan Hale Elementary School students also received the grant, but that school was closed at the end of last school year. 

Dockery said the grant has continued because studies have shown that the students who received it have improved their reading capabilities. The grant allows each student to select 10 free books to take home with them to read over the summer in an effort to stop the “summer reading slide." 

"We're happy to be involved with anything that works," Dockery told Patch. 

After Whitmer and Smallwood talked to the students about the importance of education, they engaged in a friendly game of basketball - with a football. The results of that game can be viewed here.