College sports teams are praised for their positive performances on the field, but rarely what they do off it.
From visiting local hospitals, to raising funds to support those less fortunate, the LSU gymnastics team has embraced its role in the community under the guidance of coach D-D Breaux.
LSU won the Tiger Award in 2008, given to team with most community service hours, highest GPA and national placement in postseason competition. Breaux received the McMain’s Community Service Award from the McMain’s Children’s Development Center in 2009.
The center sponsored the Wheels to Succeed Bike Race to raise funds for children with special needs, which the LSU gymnastics team participated in for the fourth straight year in October.
LSU is now preparing for its annual Etta James Memorial Meet on Friday, in honor of former LSU football player Bradie James’ mother, who lost her fight with breast cancer in 2002. Breaux said LSU and Bradie James’ Foundation56 organization has a fundraising event Thursday, complete with an auction that has included gear and a trip to Hawaii in years past.
“This year, Corey Webster’s giving us a jersey from the Giants and a football helmet,” Breaux said. “We have a Sean Payton visor from one of the Saints games.”
LSU uses the money it makes and puts it back into the community.
“We made a sizable contribution a couple of years ago to help purchase a mobile unit that goes into the community and does mammograms and cervical exams for women in our community that can’t get to the doctor,” Breaux said.
In addition to raising funds for breast cancer awareness, the LSU gymnastics team also participated in fundraisers to help find a cure for prostate cancer before the season began.
Breaux said that event gave the gymnasts a different perspective of what it means to be involved in the community.
“They played a major role in the people power it takes to put on a fundraising event,” Breaux said. “They were the servers, the people cleaning up, the people washing dishes. They kept the whole thing flowing.”
Sophomore Kaleigh Dickson said the gymnasts also take initiative in the community without the guidance of their coaches. She said she especially enjoys visiting local hospitals and speaking with children.
“I love being this involved,” Dickson said. “It shows the community we really do care and we’re doing it for a purpose and not just because we have to.”
The community service picks up most during the fall when the gymnasts aren’t competing, especially during the holiday season.
Senior gymnast Ashley Lee said the Tigers, who participate in Thanksgiving and Christmas events every year, are usually in the top three of community service hours among LSU teams at the end of every year.
Some Tigers attended the St. Vincent de Paul annual turkey carving contest before Thanksgiving and the whole team participated in Operation Christmas Child.
“We put a shoebox together and get little things they may want, some things they need, essential things like toothbrush, toothpaste, that they don’t have the luxury of getting,” Lee said. “We send that away to foreign countries.”
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Contact Rowan Kavner at [email protected]