By Della Hasselle
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
YANKEE STADIUM — Christian Rosario, a 7-year-old boy from Manhattan, had always dreamed about meeting a member of the Yankees baseball team.
So at the beginning of the summer, he took up a challenge posed by the New York Public Libraries, and learned how to read. By the end of the summer, Rosario had read over 60 books, earning himself an award for "most improved" reader — and a coveted spot behind third base of Yankee Stadium on Thursday.
“It’s so cool!” Rosario gushed from the Yankees dugout, as he shouted out the name of every player that passed by him to warm up before the 1 p.m. game against the Oakland Athletics.
Rosario was among eight kids that met Curtis Granderson and other players before the game during an awards ceremony the Yankees held for members of the New York Public Library Summer Reading Program, which aims to increase reading among city school students.
The ceremony was held for two students each from Manhattan, Staten Island, Brooklyn and the Bronx (Queens has its own public library system) who exhibited either tremendous progress or read the most books, according to the NYPL.
“I’m gonna be here next time, too,” Rosario said, referring to the annual awards program. “I’m gonna read over 200 books to come back.”
The prize for the highest number of books read went to Bronx resident Brittany Lopez, 14, who read 325 books this summer.
“This is honoring just how talented and great these kids are,” NYPL coordinator of school-age services Andrea Vaughn said on the field. “We brought the kids who contributed the most to the program."
The kids there, aged 7 to 17, all had different reading levels, but they were all equally excited.
“Right now, this is a dream, it can’t be real,” Manhattan resident Gartim Li Hasley, 17, said. “This is so awesome.”
“I’m, like, starstruck,” Staten Island resident Amanda Ciaramella, 15, agreed after shaking Granderson’s hand and having him sign her baseball. “I didn’t even expect this at all. I was just enjoying the books I was reading.”
Enjoyment is the point of the program, Granderson said. The center fielder is also the editor of a children’s book, All You Can Be, that he donated to school libraries in Michigan in 2009.
“Reading is fun, in all different aspects,” Granderson, 29, said. “The good thing [about the NYPL program] is that nobody’s forcing you to read something you don’t want to, because there’s so much stuff out there.”
The children who partook in Thursday’s award ceremony were Manhattan resident Christian Rosario, 7, Staten Island resident Amanda Ciaramella, 15, Bronx resident Brittany Lopez, 14, Manhattan resident Gartim Li Halsey, 17, Bronx resident Dynesty Williams, 12, Brooklyn resident Aliah Gilkes, 10, Brooklyn resident Brenden Sanchez, 16, and Staten Island resident Isabella Rosario, 5.
