BATON ROUGE – The LSU football team took a day away from the practice field on Monday and instead went shopping with kids from the Boys and Girls Club of Baton Rouge.
Sponsored by the Kelly Cares Foundation, along with Hancock Whitney Bank and other businesses in the Baton Rouge area, every member of the LSU football team was paired with a child from the Boys and Girls Club, and for nearly two hours, they spent time shopping for Christmas presents at Wal Mart.
“We are very grateful to be part of an event like this,” LSU coach Brian Kelly said. “It’s great for our team to be in a position to give back and to have an impact in our community. We want our players to have an identity outside of football and days like this help our players understand the impact they can have on others.
“Our players were kids at one point too and you can see how much fun they are having today.”
The event started in the team room at the football operations center where the players were paired with their shopping partner. From there, the group had lunch at the indoor facility and then bussed to Wal Mart.
The event also featured Santa Claus (defensive tackle Paris Shand for the second straight year), Santa’s reindeer (Ashton Stamps, Javen Nicholas, and Joel Rodgers) and a group of Santa’s elves (Caden Durham, Michael Turner, Jelani Watkins, Wallace Foster, and Dashawn Spears).
“To able to do this with these kids means everything to me,” senior offensive guard Miles Frazier said. “Being able to give back to these kids is an amazing feeling. They see us as stars and days like this are very special not only for them, but also for us. Everything that we are doing today with the kids is truly a blessing. LSU football, and the platform we have as football players, allows us to give back and it’s really awesome especially this time of year.”
LSU returns to practice on Tuesday morning as the Tigers continue to prepare for the Kinder’s Texas Bowl on New Year’s Eve against Baylor. Kickoff is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. at NRG Stadium in Houston.