WEST PARK – By the time Miami Dolphins fullback Lousaka Polite was finished reading to the kids from Camp Bravery at the Carver Ranches Public Library, everyone was a dolphin expert.

Polite helped kick off the Broward County Summer Reading Program this afternoon along with TD the mascot and he picked up whole new group of Finatics along the way. The West Park youngsters impressed him with their knowledge of the mammals his team is named after.

“I had a blast and they were very knowledgeable of dolphins,” said Polite, whose fiancée is a fourth-grade teacher at Watkins Elementary. “We had a little Q&A about the dolphin habitats, what they do in the water and their anatomy and the kids are very smart so they had fun with it.”

The actual title of the book Polite was reading from was “Do Whales Have Belly Buttons?” but he swapped out the word “whales” with dolphins since they are so similar. Some of the kids were surprised that the answer was yes but then Polite explained why.

Prior to his rival, branch manager Tanisha Jones read two football poems to the kids, with TD listening in as well. He had riled up the group with his entrance but they eventually all settled down. Camp Bravery is located right around the corner from the library so some of the kids walked while others rode on the camp bus.

“It was wonderful to see that the kids wanted to come to the library and get to meet a celebrity,” Jones said. “I could see that the majority if not all of them were connecting with Lou and I think that they were inspired by him.”

After Polite was done reading and quizzing the group on dolphins they were given a chance to quiz him and just about any topic. He received lots of football questions like if it hurts getting tackled by Ray Lewis, how old was he when he started playing and has he broken any bones.

Jones pointed out that even though she and the other counselors and librarians had written out questions for the kids, at least 60 percent of them were thought up on the fly. And in the end everything she ha hoped would be asked was, including one from a Camp Bravery counselor about what Polite considers the most important lesson he learned growing up. That’s when Polite preached the importance of hard work and dedication both in the classroom and in life.

“All of these are important lessons, especially at this young and developmental age and this being summertime,” he said. “If you’re not working that brain and that muscle it get fatigued and you forget what you learned. So you need to keep reading and stay active and go exercise your brain so it will help retain what you learned the previous year.”

To hear Polite do such a good job getting that message across to the kids was music to the ears of Gina Moon, youth services coordinator for the Broward County Libraries. It fell right in line with the Summer Game Piece she and the Dolphins have been promoting over the years.

Each young participant in the program is given a pamphlet (or game piece set) to follow throughout the summer. It’s formatted like a board game where the child gets to move his or piece around the board after finishing a book and collect all sorts of prizes.

“We printed 20,000 game pieces and we’re running out,” Moon said. “We’re asking them to read every day and make regular trips to the library, and in return they get a chance to do something like this where they get to meet a Dolphins player or a Dolphins cheerleader. They motivate the kids with that message about putting in the extra work and we want them to realize that with hard work you can make a difference.”

Judging by the reaction of the kids from the moment TD entered room and throughout Polite’s presentation, that message seems to be hitting home.

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