Agassi, Graf visit Richmond elementary school

On her last day at Chimborazo Elementary School, Johnequea Whitaker cracked a big, wide smile.

The graduating fifth-grader was getting what she wanted, and she was getting it delivered by a couple of global superstars.

A little after 9 a.m. -- just a few minutes after Johnequea wrapped up her first TV interview -- tennis greats Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf strolled into the school in Richmond's East End.

They were on hand to help volunteers from Genworth kick off a daylong series of activities centered on fulfilling a request Johnequea made in September: new books for the library.

"I want new books donated to this school because books give a lot of knowledge to some of the students here at my school," she wrote in a Sept. 4 essay for the "Think It Possible" community-service contest sponsored by the Genworth Foundation.

On June 16, she got to see the power of her words put into action.

While Johnequea led Agassi, Graf and a long line of school administrators on a tour of the school, 40 volunteers from Genworth were spread out. They were painting a mural in the gym, creating a reading corner in the library and, of particular interest to Johnequea, labeling nearly a thousand new books for the library.

"They're really nice," she said of the books, volunteers and tennis stars.

She admitted to being a little nervous, but she played her role with aplomb.

A step or two behind all morning was the school's principal, Cheryl Burke, who lives in the neighborhood and has spent most of the past 13 years talking about her school, good things and bad.

"I'm exhausted," she said after a long week of getting the pieces in place for the volunteer day. "But I feel great knowing that people want to come here and help."

For more than a half-hour, Agassi and Graf answered questions from fourthand fifth-graders seated in the library. The married couple took on queries hard and soft, but didn't back away from any, including one about who had won more trophies.

"I stopped counting," Agassi said. "Because if I counted mine, she'd count hers, and she won way more than I did."

The students laughed, then Agassi said his wife gets the big trophy in their house after winning 107 professional tournaments to his 60.

Contact Zachary Reid at (804) 775-8179 or .