BATON ROUGE, La. — LSU baseball coach Paul Mainieri, pitcher Matty Ott and shortstop Austin Nola participated with Baton Rouge elementary school students this week in “Real Men Read,” a program instituted by the East Baton Rouge Parish School System.
Mainieri and Ott read selected books to students at LaSalle Elementary, and Nola read to youngsters at The Dunham School. They led discussion groups that reviewed the texts, and they stressed to the students the importance of reading.
“Real Men Read” is a program that brings men from the local community into schools to read to students. The purpose of the activity is to ignite in males the excitement of reading. Bridging positive role models from the community with young males in elementary schools through the mode of reading provides a powerful opportunity to encourage lifelong practices related to the power and purpose of reading.
Mainieri and his LSU players have made a strong commitment to community service. He is personally involved in several philanthropic causes, as he works with Cancer Services of Baton Rouge, the ALS Association, the Mental Health Association of Greater Baton Rouge, Prevent Child Abuse and the McMains Development Center for Children.