BATON ROUGE — A pair of LSU student-athletes took time out from the spring break holiday to deliver Easter baskets to local children on Wednesday as part of the Shaquille O’Neal CHAMPS/Life Skills program.
Senior softball player Shannon Stein and senior track and field distance runner Katie Dawson dropped off the baskets for students at the Southern head start Pre-K and at Bernard Terrace Elementary. Stein and Dawson loaded 85 Easter baskets into their vehicles at Sacred Heart School, the designated pick-up point, and delivered them to the students at both schools.
The “Build a Basket” program is in its second year being sponsored by the St. Vincent de Paul Society. Last year 3,000 baskets were delivered to needy children before Easter. Volunteers assembled the baskets, which contained donated items like toys, candy, crayons and coloring books, last weekend for delivery this week.
The Society of St. Vincent de Paul is an international, non-profit, charitable organization that has a rich history of service to the needy. Its mission, through person-to-person contact, mass feeding, sheltering and other channels, encompasses every form of aid which alleviates suffering and promotes dignity and integrity.
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.