Several Seton Hall Prep students and Coach Bob Farrell responded to an invitation from Linden’s Highland Avenue School No. 10 in support of American Education Week, which spotlights the importance of providing every child with a good education. Coach Farrell brought two of his basketball players, juniors Conor Wujciak and Sterling Gibbs, along with junior Rob Recio, to visit the second grade class of his daughter, Kelly Farrell Kahney.

With the second-graders’ parents lining the room, the Prep students read to the second-graders from Marylin Burns’s "Spaghetti and Meatballs for All," and John Lord’s “The Giant Jan Sandwich.” After Conor, Sterling and Rob had their turns, the children read their own stories to the gathering. They had worked with their families to craft accounts of turkeys finding ways to disguise themselves so they wouldn’t get eaten on Thanksgiving. Creativity ruled the day: one turkey signed with a rock band so that he would be on tour overseas; another caught on as an NHL goalie so he’d be in Canada on the big day.

Then the Prepsters joined the students at their Literacy Work Stations, where the youngsters paired up to practice skills that they learn in class- including the Listening Station, Buddy Reading Station, Word Study Station, Vocabulary Station and Writing Station.

Coach Farrell and his players have responded to American Education Week and to Read Across America for over a decade. Rob Recio’s visit this year was by his own request since he had been in a St. Lucy’s Elizabeth fourth grade class visited by Prep students in 2005.