Aug. 28, 2007
PHOTO GALLERY
EASTON, Pa. - Members of the Lafayette men's basketball squad met outside of Pardee Hall Tuesday morning to load vans with computers donated by the college to the William Penn Charter and SciTech High Schools in Harrisburg, Pa.
"This is a great opportunity for Lafayette men's basketball to help the educational community in Harrisburg and these schools as the academic year starts," said head coach Fran O'Hanlon. "Positively impacting the community is incredibly important to our program."
The Leopards are volunteering their time to the Dreams Within Reach (www.dreamswithinreach.org) organization co-created by assistant coach Pete Schwethelm. The mission of the organization is to integrate technology into the classroom and improve students' understanding of mathematics using Your Teacher (www.YourTeacher.com) software.
"Harrisburg is in need of computers and Lafayette had computers the college was willing to donate. We had our student-athletes volunteer their time to help the students of Harrisburg," Schwethelm said.
The program started by educating participants about computers and has expanded to include its partnership with Your Teacher software. The program now works within the classroom to increase students' exposure to technology as a learning aid.
"Having played under Coach O'Hanlon and now to coach beside him, he has always supported community outreach initiatives," assist coach Drew Dawson said. "Pete has done a great job bringing Dreams Within Reach to our program's attention and it is great to get Lafayette involved in the Harrisburg Area."
The Lafayette men's basketball team opens its 2007-08 season at home on Nov. 9 against Wagner. The Leopards return six players who spent significant time in the starting lineup in 2006-07, including senior team captain Matt Betley as well as classmates Bilal Abdullah, Paul Cummins, Ted Detmer, Everest Schmidt and junior Andrew Brown.
