May 11, 2009

RUSTON--Five members of the Louisiana Tech football team spent part of Thursday afternoon visiting and eating crawfish with the residents of Alpine Guest Care Center in Ruston.

"Staying involved with the community is something Coach Dooley really stresses to us," senior Thomas Graham said. "Everyone in the community supports us so much so we feel like we need to show our appreciation for them by staying involved with the community."

The Bulldogs spent approximately two hours socializing with the residents during the Center's annual crawfish boil and according to Alpine Guest Care Center Administrator Elton Dugan, the player's presence meant a lot to the residents.

"We're really grateful for what the guys have done," Dugan said. "We flew the Tech flag, we had a band and everyone really had a good time. A lot of Tech employees have loved ones here and a lot of our residents attended Tech so we want to keep that connection and keep everyone connected to the community. We don't require the players to come every year, they just volunteer their time to come out here and we are really appreciative of them. They have really helped enhance our program."

The players and residents enjoyed a live band and some great crawfish that the Bulldogs also helped serve for the event.

"We all enjoyed ourselves," Graham said. "We got to just hang out and relax with everybody. It was really neat to hear all their stories. There was some good music and some dancing, it was just really fun being out there. We're just trying to show how much we appreciate the community's support for us."

The five Bulldogs who participated in the visit were Alex Anglin, Tank Calais, Graham, Randy Hardin and Dustin Mitchell.