CLEVELAND — Cleveland Cavaliers guard Darius Garland wants to get Cleveland kids excited about school and going consistently, and to encourage that, he has partnered with Mayor Justin Bibb and the Cleveland Metropolitan School District to launch the "Perfect 10 Attendance Network."
As part of the Perfect 10 Attendance Program, students who achieve perfect attendance through December will receive two tickets to the Cavs game against the Timberwolves in January. Students with perfect attendance through April will receive two tickets to the Cavs game against the Wizards in April.
If that wasn't motivation enough, the program is also providing a pizza party, hosted by Garland in partnership with a Cleveland-favorite, Cent's Pizza, to the school with the highest percentage of students achieving perfect attendance.
The program's name was inspired by Garland's jersey number, but the goal of the program isn't about basketball, although it is an incentive; it's all about showing up to class.
"Just trying to show the kids that school really means a lot. It's the stepping stone, the building block of literally your whole life basically," Garland said. "Just trying to encourage kids just to come to school and just learn a lot."
Schools participating in the Perfect 10 Attendance Program are Whitney Young K-8 School, Wilbur Wright K-8 School and James Ford Rhodes High School, where Garland launched the program on Monday.
Holding a pep rally early Monday morning to start the school day, Garland and Cavs company, including mascot Sir CC and the Scream Team, filled the gym with music and dancing for students to get excited about school. 20 students who currently have perfect attendance were recognized by Garland and Mayor Bibb's office, and will receive two tickets to a game this month in addition to the special recognition they received from the mayor on Monday morning.
It was fun for the kids and for Garland.
"To have some kids up that early and that active—I was struggling waking up this morning, but I was super excited about it, so seeing that energy out there, it was super cool just to be a part of it," Garland said. "It's super cool to actually put a smile on their faces and doing little dances and TikTok dances with them, just interacting with them, it means a lot to me."
Garland got to see Rhodes High School get excited about being in school at the pep rally, but it's something he hopes carries through the rest of the school year, too.
