Mordecai attends LEAP meeting

Early County Early Reading First held the last LEAP meeting for the 2008-2009 school year on Thursday, May 14 at 9 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. At the 9 a.m. meeting, two parents were recognized with "Perfect Attendance" awards for having attended between July 2008 and May 2009. Heather Chandler and Kristal Houston were recognized as "Parent Perfect Attenders" and at the 5:30 p.m. meeting Sue Hunt was recognized as the "Daycare Provider Perfect Attender." All were honored with a certificate of attendance and a gift card.

Collin Wilson and father, Bruce, meet former Atlanta Brave Mike Mordecai at the last 2008- 2009 LEAP meeting. The featured guest speaker at the 5:30 p.m. meeting was Mike Mordecai, current head baseball coach and teacher at Houston Academy in Dothan. Formerly, he was a right-handed hitting utility infielder for the Atlanta Braves (1994- 1997), Montreal Expos (1998-2002, now currently known as the Washington Nationals), and the Florida Marlins (2002-2005).

Mordecai's main topic involved setting goals and working hard to achieve them. He stressed the fact that there's no future without education and he told his personal story of having to bring his grades up from B-C honor roll to A-B honor roll in order to reach his goal of "Athlete of the Year." After many long hours of tutoring and many sacrifices on the field, he finally achieved his goal.

The first ERF LEAP meeting for the 2009- 2010 school year will be held Thursday July 16.