BATON ROUGE, La. – LSU men’s basketball senior John Odo volunteered his time and talents this past Saturday at the Gardere Neighborhood Arts Project.
The event was hosted by the LSU Museum of Art as a free community arts outreach program designed to allow kids to enjoy a morning of creative, engaging and fun art making.
“This event was a fun opportunity for me to interact with the local kids,” said Odo. “We had a great time painting basketballs at the art project. This event was very beneficial for the kids to come out and do something positive and fun as a neighborhood.”
The focus was on the art of sports, celebrating the exhibition of LeRoy Neiman that the LSU Museum of Art currently has on view. John spent two hours volunteering at the event interacting with the kids. He played basketball and other sports with them, as well as helping them paint basketballs.
“The LSU Museum of Art’s Neighborhood Arts Project brings engaging art experiences directly into the Baton Rouge Community,” said Lucy Perera, Coordinator of School & Community Programs for the LSU Museum of Art. “This past weekend’s program celebrated the Museum’s exhibition LeRoy Neiman: Action! Great athletes are like artists with skills that have been honed through practice and perseverance. Having LSU Basketball’s John Odo participating was important for the Gardere kids — he really was a super-hero role model.
“John jumped right into the fray,” she said, “tossing basketballs and footballs, playing soccer and baseball, and then showed these same kids that making art is cool by painting right alongside them. What a Renaissance man! Thank you LSU for this great opportunity to collaborate.”
The LSU Athletics participation is made possible through the auspices Shaquille O’Neal Life Skills Program and the LSU Geaux Givers.
A complete gallery of the event is available here.
The Cox Communications Academic Center for Student-Athletes is a 54,000 square foot facility comprised of an academic affairs, student affairs and an information technology team, serving more than 530 student-athletes. The purpose is to provide an all-inclusive, student-centered support structure for all student-athletes from matriculation, through graduation and life beyond.