RUSTON, La. – Members of the Louisiana Tech football and men's basketball teams gave back to the community and their loved ones this week in honor of the life and memory of the late Maggie Lee Henson.
 
For the last four years, LA Tech football has gathered on October 29, known as the Maggie Lee For Good Day, to perform an act of kindness. In 2018, they gathered winter coats for the underprivileged. In 2019, the team replaced trees along West Alabama Ave following the tornado in April earlier that year. And in 2020, the team visited residents at Russ Place who had been in lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
 
This year, LA Tech football and men's basketball student-athletes put together care packages for loved ones who are battling or who have survived breast cancer.
 
"This day is important," Jennifer Holtz, wife of LA Tech head football coach Skip Holtz, said. "Especially with what's going on with the world, don't we all want to do better and make someone else feel better? That's really the premise of everything that Maggie Lee For Good Day stands for. It's to pass things along. I had the privilege and honor of being connected with Jinny Henson over in Shreveport five years ago and heard a little bit about her story and Maggie Lee For Good Day and right away said I have a great group of people back in Ruston that I'd love to have be a part of it. We included the football team. Skip thought it was another great community service opportunity. After working so hard on the field, there's nothing better than to do something that makes you feel good for others."
 
Henson was a vibrant 12-year old who died from traumatic brain injuries suffered in a bus crash on her way to First Baptist Shreveport's church youth camp on July 12, 2009.
 
Moved by the generous life and tragic death of Maggie Lee, over 18,000 people reported performing one single act of kindness in her honor on Oct. 29, 2009 – which would have been Maggie's 13th birthday. Over 10 years later, thousands of acts of kindness continue in her honor on Oct. 29. One such act was performed by the Louisiana Tech football and men's basketball teams.
 
The event was organized by Jennifer Holtz who is a breast cancer survivor herself.
 
"This year was something near and dear to my heart," she said. "I'm a breast cancer survivor. I just had my fourth cancer-related surgery two weeks ago. It was no better time than October to honor those women that are battling or who have survived breast cancer than on Maggie Lee For Good Day. So, our players along with the basketball team chose a loved one that they wanted to honor and we had things donated from all over the community here in Ruston. It was an honor to call people who were more than willing to donate things to pack a beautiful care package that these women and young ladies are going to open and just know that someone loves them back at Louisiana Tech. They have Bulldogs cheering them on in honor of Maggie Lee For Good Day."
 
The student-athletes were given the opportunity to provide names of loved ones who are battling or who have survived breast cancer. They then put together and mailed care packages for those loved ones with materials provided by local contributors including FanBase (Ronnie Walker), The Fashion of Ruston (Katie Bonnette), Social Bites (Heather Bailey), The Collective (Mallory Patterson), Wiggin' Out (Vicki Caskey), Pack & Mail (Blake Vanlandingham) and LA Tech football head coach Skip Holtz.
 
"It's an opportunity to give back," Skip Holtz said. "It's great for these players. We always tell them to whom much is given, much is expected. We have an obligation to give back to this community and the Maggie Lee For Good Day is a great opportunity for these guys to do good for somebody else. I know there's nothing more valuable than your time, especially as a student-athlete with the regiment, structure and discipline you have to have. But, there's nothing more rewarding than giving your time to somebody who is less fortunate. It's a rewarding feeling."
 
LA Tech football student-athletes who participated in the 2021 event included Tristan Allen, Levi Bell, Reeves Blankenship, Jaiden Cole, Samuel Emilus, Tyler Grubbs, Keyon Henry-Brooks, Kellton Hollins, Caleb Knighten, Bub Means, Praise Okorie and BeeJay Williamson.
 
"I wanted to get involved because I want to honor the life of Maggie Lee who passed, but also I love giving back in any way that I can," Hollins said. "This particular event was to acknowledge someone that we knew that had breast cancer. I jumped on that immediately because my grandmother is a breast cancer survivor. I saw that and I saw her strength through it all. I just wanted to let her know that I love her and that I'm thinking about her through doing all of this."
 
Men's basketball's Exavian Christon, Kenneth Lofton, Jr.and Ben Ponder also participated in the event.
 
"You look forward to having projects set up and looking for ways to help people," Ponder said. "It's always a really good reminder that this is bigger than you. You're doing everything for someone else. It makes you take a step back and say, 'This isn't about me anymore. This is about someone else.'"
 
Ponder, a Shreveport native, has participated in Maggie Lee For Good Day since he was in fourth grade. His mother, Leslie, is good friends with Maggie Lee's mother, Jinny, so the day was tradition for him.
 
"It's been such a big part of my life the last eight or nine years and I knew I wanted to do something," Ponder said. "I was trying to think of how I could use basketball and the players to bring them into this tradition."
 
Ponder reached out to Jennifer Holtz after hearing that she did something each year with the football team and was able to get both himself and his teammates involved.
 
According to the Maggie Lee for Good website, hundreds of thousands of acts of kindness have occurred in remembrance of Maggie Lee. Water wells dug in Africa, homes built in Haiti, food delivered to the poor in Chicago, Los Angeles, Paris, New York and Caracas. Money has been raised for organ donation services, women's shelters, food pantries, animal shelters, and countless other non-profit organizations.
 
"It is important to serve," Hollins said. "Being a student-athlete, it's easy to get caught up in the grind and focus on sport and school. For me, I'm living out my dream. I was once the kid who was looking up to somebody who was playing college football. So, it's important I acknowledge that and let kids know they can be in our shoes as well. I'm still living out my dream, and I don't ever want to lose sight of that."
 
LA Tech football (2-5, 1-2 C-USA) will travel to Norfolk, Va., to take on Old Dominion (1-6, 0-3 C-USA) on Saturday, Oct. 30, at 2:30 p.m. CT. Tech men's basketball returns to the Thomas Assembly Center on Thursday, Nov. 4, as the Bulldogs host Mississippi College in an exhibition game at 6:30 p.m.
 
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