NEW ORLEANS (WGNO)- The entire month of March, Winn-Dixie is teaming up with Elevate New Orleans—a program which helps elevate inner city student athletes.
It was game time today for student athletes who are part of the Elevate New Orleans program.
“Elevate focuses on academics for student athletes, primarily basketball players. We offer them tutoring from Tulane and Loyola and we make sure all the students average a 3.0 G.P.A. or better. We want to make sure they channel their love for sports into academics, as well,” Sky Hyacinthe, Executive Director of Elevate New Orleans, said.
For students like Drew Lewis, Elevate has been a slam-dunk! He recently was accepted into LSU on scholarship.
“It helped to keep my grades up and get better at basketball,” Lewis said.
Seeing the success of students like Drew made Winn-Dixie want to get in on the action.
“Anytime we have the opportunity to help make the community better, we take that opportunity,” Mohamed Abulhawa, Winn-Dixie District Director, said.
The entire month of March, Winn-Dixie will be having an in-store fundraising campaign to help out Elevate.
“The checkout person will ask if you want to contribute and you can right at the register. Could be a penny to round out your purchase, or anything to contribute,” he said.
Investing in Elevate is definitely the winning way. So far, Elevate New Orleans’ record is perfect!
“We’ve been in existence for 5 years and in that time we’ve sent 14 out of 14 kids to college on scholarship,” Hyacinthe said.