Students learn C.H.E.E.R.

Five students got a chance to be unofficial members of the Harlem

Globetrotters team.

By HAROLD GWIN

VINDICATOR EDUCATION WRITER

YOUNGSTOWN — It didn’t take the students at Taft Elementary School long to figure out who the special guest was at their Friday morning assembly.

They burst into applause when a 6-foot, 5-inch guy wearing a Harlem Globetrotters warm-up suit walked into the room.

The guest was Wun “The Shot” Versher, a Globetrotters Goodwill Ambassador.

He played on the team for 11 years before retiring four years ago, taking on the job of being an ambassador who visits schools in towns where the team is playing.

Versher, who lives in Los Angeles and played college basketball at Arizona State University, said he visits more than 300 schools a year, bringing the C.H.E.E.R. for Character program to students.

The acronym stands for Cooperation, Healthy mind and body, Effort, Enthusiasm and Responsibility. It’s a message stressing desirable character traits and behavior, and Versher got the students involved from the beginning, calling one child forward to explain what each word in the acronym means to them. He then offered his own encouragement to all of the students to work well with others, eat properly, do their homework and get away from the electronic games long enough to go outside and play.

The five students he called forward then became unofficial Globetrotters as Versher arranged them in a performance circle, teaching each one a specific basketball trick that the Globetrotters perform during their show.

After they perfected their tricks, Versher called up Principal Mike Flood to join the circle, and, to the delight of the students, ended the routine by bouncing the basketball off Flood’s rump.

The Goodwill Ambassador visit was arranged by Junior Achievement of the Mahoning Valley.

President Michele Merkel said her agency requests a visit to a local school every time the Globetrotters are playing in the area.

The team will perform next Saturday at the Covelli Centre.

The C.H.E.E.R. program is important because it focuses on education, being physically active, proper nourishment and more, she said.

Junior Achievement links education to the community by providing a variety of school programming for children in kindergarten through 12th grade focusing on three areas: financial literacy, entrepreneurship and work-force readiness.

At the conclusion of the program, a drawing took place to give two students four tickets each to the Globetrotters’ Covelli Centre show.

gwin@vindy.com