Boro defender George Friend swapped the football pitch for the classroom to encourage Tees youngsters to pick up a book.
The fans’ favourite dropped into Belmont Primary School, Guisborough, yesterday to stress the importance of reading to pupils.
Friend, who recently completed a degree in Sports Journalism, knows the importance of children developing their literacy skills - and admitted he was delighted to give something back to the local community.
“It’s very important to come to places like this, especially when it’s for such a good cause as raising awareness about reading,” the 27-year-old said.
“The club has been brilliant with the MFC Foundation and it’s important as a player to try to help in the community.
“I struggled when I was younger to sit down and read but then I found things I was interested in.
“Certainly doing my degree helped me to broaden that a bit, but it’s important to read from a young age and get children into a good habit - whether it’s a magazine or a 500-page book.
“It’s something the manager (Aitor Karanka) feels is important, but the players also love coming out and doing our bit.
“We’ve got a good mix of cultures and people from different countries, and everyone wants to help the club and help the community.”
Friend spoke to pupils about reading and his experiences at school, before leading a question and answer session.
Mike Bloomfield, chair of governors at Belmont Primary School, believes Friend can be a role model to pupils.
“The reason for asking George to come was that recent evidence showed our boys in partucylar are underachieving in reading.
“It’s not an uncommon phenomonen but we want the boys at our school to appreciate that it is cool to read.
“We thought it would be good for a prominent person, in this case George Friend, to come in and have a chat with the students.
“We believe he is a good role model for our boys and we hope they were all inspired and encouraged to keep reading.”
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