Jeff Berding knows what it’s like to be rewarded by a major professional sports team for academic achievement. After all, he once had that opportunity growing up while attending St. Catharine of Siena School.
“When I was growing up in Westwood, the only way to go to a Reds game was the straight ‘A’ tickets,” Berding said. “I understand using our professional sports teams to motivate kids to learn and be high achievers in school and make the Honor Roll. It was meaningful to me.”
On Monday night, Berding, FC Cincinnati’s president, stood alongside former Cincinnati Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis in the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden’s Peacock Pavilion and took pictures with local elementary students with good grades.
The program was part of “Learning Is Cool,” an academic achievement incentive program founded by the Marvin Lewis Community Fund. While Monday celebrated the students after an impressive school year, the evening also marked a historic moment in the program’s future.
The event was the last one held by the former Bengals coach’s community fund. Moving forward, the FC Cincinnati Foundation will oversee “Learning Is Cool,” beginning in the 2019-20 academic school year and beyond.
“Marvin Lewis was one of my mentors and my teachers through my 19 years with the Bengals,” Berding said. “For him to come tonight and hand off Learning Is Cool to Jeff Berding and FC Cincinnati, I have a lot of pride in that. It’s enormously meaningful to me.
“To see how he changed lives in his 16 years in Cincinnati and to say, maybe, his most important program is now going to be an FC Cincinnati Foundation program is enormous and it’s consistent with what FC Cincinnati is all about.”
Berding said Learning Is Cool is arguably Lewis’ most-enduring legacy.
The program just finished its 11th year as an offering to students in Cincinnati Public Schools, Covington Independent Public Schools, North College Hills and Middletown City Schools. Honored students need a GPA of a 3.51 or higher. More than 31,000 students are eligible to participate.
For those honored at the zoo, they took a picture with not only Berding and Lewis, but also FC Cincinnati players. They also received medals and had the zoo all to themselves for the evening. While some rode the train or visited exhibits, others watched programs, such as Forrest Lasso, Jimmy McLaughlin and Spencer Richey trying to paint with their feet ... alongside a painting goat.
“It’s been exciting,” Lewis said of leading Learning Is Cool. “We have done what we wanted and that was to really benefit the young people … When you’re educating young people, all you’re doing is raising the level of our community and it’s been great to be able to see the smiles on the young people’s faces.”
Because Lewis and Berding worked together in the NFL, they already have an established relationship. Lewis said that helped the transition of the FCC Foundation overseeing his academic program.
“We want to give back and create something that’s bigger than ourselves and create a legacy for FCC,” Berding said. “In this case, we’re not creating a legacy from scratch, we’re picking up the legacy of Marvin Lewis.”
