BATON ROUGE — LSU student-athletes participated in Literacy Night at River Oaks Elementary School last week as part of the Shaquille O’Neal CHAMPS/Life Skills program.
Members of the softball, gymnastics and baseball teams, in addition to other “celebrities” from around town read their favorite childhood stories to the elementary students and their parents at the local school.
As part of the event, the children came dressed in their pajamas and relaxed as they ate night time snacks and had story time. Several member of the LSU athletics teams also participated in their pajamas as part of the event.
The CHAMPS (Challenging Athletes Minds for Personal Success)/Life Skills Program was designed by the NCAA to help student-athletes realize higher academic achievement, increase likelihood of graduation and enter a chosen profession with a higher level of vision, knowledge, motivation, self-responsibility and greater overall success. In Spring 2003, the CHAMPS/ Life Skills Program honored one of LSU’s most memorable graduates, Shaquille O’Neal, by naming the program after him.