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1216 DECEMBER
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live
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by joy holden connect / l o c a l p r o f i l e millennials often get a bad rap for being self-involved and lazy. the students and 20-somethings involved in the organization, live 2 serve, defy this stereotype. jacob
allen nichols began this powerful movement by meeting a need. jacob recalls, ?i was a freshman at lsu and every day i stopped at a gas station and got a drink. a little boy named tyler approached me everyday and asked for a snickers or an icee. then his request turned into ?i want to play baseball for the astros.?? students during live 2 play, the weekly recreation event. hanging out is not all live 2 serve does, though. ?we also have college students tutor our kiddos, which is fantastic. we have soccer teams that participate in the ymca league. next semester, we will have manners night and high school boys group,? jacob shares. with so many kids to mentor and programs to juggle, how do these young people do it? college volunteers keep the program going. jacob is the only paid staff member, but he has four friends that operate as his volunteer staff. ?ey support one another, recruit more volunteers, and of course, love on all the kids who come to live 2 serve. jacob?s approach draws more volunteers. when he was a freshman and wanted to get involved, every program demanded a commitment. he decided to start his own thing and go when it suited him, but realized he wanted to go all the time. we always try to focus on serving baton rouge. we believe that mission trips end, but we should be on a mission every day. we can serve here. this is where our passion is. but there were two problems: no equipment and no one to play with him. jacob brought him a ball and glove, and they started to play catch. ?e next day, tyler brought a friend and pretty soon, jacob had 30 kids in a field with collected sports equipment. he needed some help. ?at simple throw and catch has grown into live 2 serve, a christian non-profit with 3,000 college volunteers and 100 kids that attend weekly. ?eir home base is the baranco-clark ymca. ?e kids that play in live 2 serve come from the surrounding neighborhoods known as ??e bottoms,? only several blocks from lsu?s campus. as jacob describes it, ?we are a modern day youth group for these kids. we play games, do a bible study, and hang out.? every wednesday night, the field, playground, and gym are full of young neighborhood kids laughing, running, drawing, and playing with lsu college 46 brparents.com | december 2016
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