Pasadena students are performing a play about Jackie Robinson’s life in celebration of the baseball great’s 100^th birthday at the school he attended as a first grader.

Third and fourth graders at Cleveland Elementary School have been practicing their lines and rehearsing a play about the man who once walked the same halls.

“That’s incredible,” said third grader Scippiuan Evans-Chisolm. “I’m actually sharing something with him.”

While preparing for the play, some students have learned about Robinson from their families who grew up in the same neighborhood as pioneering sports icon.

“My grandma and her sisters and brothers used to go over Jackie Robinson’s house when they were little and they used to play together,” said third grader Alexzandra Spratling.

Their teacher Ms. Tully helped her students memorialize Robinson’s legacy in their community. The students wrote a letter to the school board and asked why there wasn't something at their school to honor him.

In response, the school board sent a framed picture and installed a plaque outside the school.

Yet that same board also decided to close Cleveland Elementary at the end of the school year partly due to low enrollment.

“No matter what happens to the school, whatever it becomes…I still believe this school, whatever happens, should be renamed from Cleveland school to Jackie Robinson school,” said teacher Dawna Tully.  

“And if for whatever reason that doesn’t happen, when kids walk by this school, they should see it as Jackie Robinson’s school. The school he went to. The school they could come to and see his plaque. And see his impact that started here.”

Robinson’s impact on the world and his community will stay in students’ minds forever.

“Thank you,” Scippiuan said to Robinson.  “For being a courageous person to me and to all the other people in the world.”