Stephen Curry attends Stephen and Ayesha Curry’s Eat. Learn. Play., unveiling a new mobile resource center at Franklin Elementary School on September 08, 2021 in Oakland, California.Photo:Courtesy of Eat. Learn. Play./Noah Graham for Getty
Courtesy of Eat. Learn. Play./Noah Graham for Getty
When it comes to the never-ending debate over which is better, theHarry Potterbooks or movies, Golden State Warriors starStephen Currycan’t weigh in.
“I’ve read all of theHarry Potterbooks,” the four-time NBA champion, 33, tells PEOPLE. “I didn’t get to see the movies, though.”
“I know it’s blasphemous, but yes, that’s where I’m at,” Curry admits with a laugh.
“I guess I’ve just got to have a little movie marathon,” he opines during a video call with his wife,Ayesha Curry, from the Bay Area home they share withtheir three children, daughters Riley and Ryan and son Canon.
“I was aChronicles of Narniagirl,” Ayesha, 34, says before her husband breaks into laughter. “Why are you laughing?!”
Stephen Curry and Ayesha Curry attend as Workday partners with Stephen and Ayesha Curry’s Eat. Learn. Play. to host the Annual Workday Charity Classic ‘22 at Stanford Golf Course on August 29, 2022 in Stanford, California.Noah Graham/Getty
While Stephen says his favorite subject in school was math, Ayesha says she took more to science. “I was an anatomy and physiology type of girl,” the mother of three tells PEOPLE. “I was fortunate enough that in one of my classes, we even got to dissect things; that was exciting for me.”
TheSweet July founderalso recalls “the most amazing teacher” she had for a civics and economics class. “You know what it was about that class? The teacher. I’ll never forget her and how she was so attentive and so caring. That really stuck with me,” says Ayesha.
“It’s our adoptive home,” Stephen says, adding, “There’s such a unique culture here, unique energy, but there are also a lot of challenges.”
Stephen and Ayesha Curry hug during the unveiling of the Eat. Learn. Play. bus at the East Oakland Youth Development Center in Oakland, Calif.Nhat V. Meyer/MediaNews Group/East Bay Times via Getty
Among those challenges is a lack of “access to the appropriate resources, especially for young kids,” says Stephen.
To combat Oakland’s shortfalls for children, Stephen and Ayesha announced a new $50 millioninitiativeto theirEat. Learn. Play. Foundationon Wednesday.
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Created in 2019, Stephen says the foundation helped him and Ayesha “understand how we could truly make an impact” in their community.
The athlete explains, “It only made sense to address these issues head-on and really wave the flag of Oakland, because we say, there’s so much talent here, but opportunity isn’t everywhere.”
Stephen Curry and Ayesha Curry attend Stephen and Ayesha Curry’s Eat. Learn. Play., unveiling a new mobile resource center at Franklin Elementary School on September 08, 2021 in Oakland, California.Courtesy of Eat. Learn. Play./Noah Graham for Getty
Beyond the significant financial support, Stephen and Ayesha generously lend their time to the Oakland community as well.
Ayesha recalls realizing the students at an Oakland public school were more excited to take home books than to meet the Warriors star. “I saw a basketball hoop and was like, oh, we have all these books to give away. Nobody’s going to want these. The kids are going to show up, they’re going to see Stephen and they’re going to be like, we’re going to hoop,” she says.
“But no, it was so wild. As soon as the bus opened up and the kids saw the books, they ran directly towards the books.”
“I was like, wow, the excitement here for reading and the joy for reading and wanting to learn is there. It’s right there in our faces. It really does come down to access,” she explains.
One of the most popular selections from the Oakland students wasStephen’sI Have a Superpower,released in 2022, according to the author himself. “Shameless plug, but a lot of them were excited about it,” he says.
“Everybody wanted the little satchel that you could take and load up to see how many books they could carry,” he says. “That’s the joy of reading that we’re trying to instill, and it’s pretty awesome that it’s not that hard to get that energy back. You just have to be present and be able to show up for the kids.”
source: people.com
