BATON ROUGE — LSU gymnast Kelly Phelan was named a Coca-Cola Community All-American the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) has announced.
Phelan, who serves as the president of LSU’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, has been instrumental in spearheading LSU’s community service projects this year.
To date, Phelan has participated in National Adoption Month, the Baton Rouge area’s Race for the Cure and River Oak Elementary’s Literacy Night. She has also served as a volunteer at the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon, the Louisiana Gumbo Games and ZTA Pancake Breakfast, a fundraiser supporting breast cancer awareness.
Phelan’s latest honor rounds out the All-American trifecta for the senior from Orlando, Fla., who is also an Academic All-American as well as a 2006 All-America selection on the floor exercise.
The Coca-Cola Community All-Americans program launched in 2003-04 when Coca-Cola and NACDA joined in an effort to recognize student-athletes for their hands-on volunteerism and superior community service efforts.
Each year student-athletes are nominated by athletic administrators, coaches and fellow student-athletes. Each athletics director reviews the institutions submissions and selects one student-athlete as its campus’ Coca-Cola Community All-American. This student is then nominated for consideration in the national recognition program.
The national Coca-Cola Community All-Americans will be flown to Orlando to receive their awards during the James J. Corbett Awards Luncheon at NACDA’s 42nd Annual Convention on Friday, June 8 at the World Center Marriott Resort.
Additionally, Coca-Cola will make a $5,000 donation to the community/philanthropic cause of each recipient’s choice. A total of 172 student-athletes have been nominated and six will be selected for national honors.