On May 3, 2008, the Boy’s Varsity tennis team performed a community service project. The trip, which was to the Wallingford Public Library, was a huge success according to the players. The team participated in the “Big Read”, a national book reading program sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts.

Captain Max Mullen ‘08 pioneered the idea to do a community service project with the team. Mullen said that, “The captain’s leadership training during preseason in the fall stressed team commitment to the community and team bonding, so I thought we should perform some kind of community service trip.” Max, who does community service at the library on a weekly basis, thought that the team should go on a service trip to the library.

Being an active member of the library community, he contacted Ms. Devlin, the community relations person at the library, who was enthusiastic the team coming to the library. Ms. Devlin suggested that the team should come participate in a program called the “Big Read” for a couple hours that Saturday. Max then suggested the idea to the team, which was largely in favor of the idea.

Members of the team, including Mullen, Brian McDermott ’08, Christophe Lirola ’08, Derek Lubetkin ’08, Chip Lebovitz ’10, Danilo Lobo Dias ’08, and Jamie Greenwald ’11 on the team went to the reading that Saturday before there big game against Deerfield (which was eventually rained out. ) There was a nice turnout that day, with notable guest such as the Mayor of Wallingford, William Dickinson, and fireman from the local Wallingford station. The group read the critically acclaimed book, Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury. The reading was an excellent display of the community coming together. The book, which was written in the nineteen fifties, is about the confiscation and burning of books. Ironically, firemen from the local Wallingford station took part in the reading. The Mayor read the first few pages, followed by the firemen, and then the members of the team each took turns reading portions. After all of the team had read, other members of the community took turns in reading the book. The group, which consisted of people of all ages, took turns reading for two hours.

Jamie Greenwald ’11 felt it was good thing to do, especially before a big match with Deerfield. He said, “The trip was an exceptional team bonding experience, and we all felt good after because we knew that we had helped the community. Looking back, it was a great experience for the team.” Almost all of the members felt that way about the trip, that it was a fulfilling experience. It is great to see a team get involved in the community, like Max Mullen and his fine sirs of the tennis team did that Saturday. The trip will hopefully encourage other teams to find time and do similar community service projects.