By Kayla Faust, Comcast Team, serving at the Jeremiah E. Burke High School

Burke Students Paris and Ulari take a quick phone picture while watching the Celtics (photo by Julia Leb)

When people find out I’m from South Carolina, they usually ask me why I made the decision to move up here. Without hesitation I quickly reply, “The Celtics, duh!”  While that isn’t the true reason I made the move, being able to attend the games of my favorite basketball team was definitely a bonus. Last year I was fortunate to attend a few Celtics games through generous ticket donations, and each time I visited the TD Garden I was met by overzealous fans that flooded the stadium with green and the scent of the delicious but overpriced variety of concession foods. The best part of each game was leaving with a scratchy throat after yelling through 48 minutes of fast breaks, slam dunks, and defense plays that would lead to a Celtics win or defeat. Hands down some of my best moments in Boston have been while attending Celtics games.

On March 23, I was given yet another opportunity to attend a Celtic’s game.  Instead of going with my usual basketball crew made of fellow Senior Corps Members, my Program Manager Julia Leb and I chaperoned Ulari and Paris, two students from the Burke Freshmen Academy to their very first Celtics game. With the generous donation of four tickets, the Comcast team decided to raffle off two tickets as a part of one of our attendance initiatives.  For the two weeks prior, students would receive a raffle ticket for each day they arrived to school and in their first period class on time.

Ultimately, Ulari and Paris were selected to go and we had a blast. I felt as if I went to the game with my usual crew. We were all decked out in our Celtics gear, ate some overpriced candy and screamed as loud as we could for 48 minutes. I have to admit Ulari and Paris might have outyelled me with their young lungs, but we enjoyed each others company, and I had the opportunity to share their first Celtics game with them. We left the game, of course, with scratchy throats and a little disappointed because the Celtics loss to the Memphis Grizzlies, but that night may have been one of the best Celtics games I’ve ever experienced.