The Billiken Caravan
The Billiken Caravan is the community relations platform for the department of athletics. It involves coaches, student-athletes and administrators in various appearances throughout the St. Louis metropolitan area. The traveling service plan is the first that unifies the department and supplements each team’s individual service projects. The Billiken Caravan kicked off its inaugural 2003-04 tour at the Jackie Joyner-Kersee Center in East St. Louis, Ill., on Thu., Aug. 7. Representatives from each of the Billikens’ athletic teams hosted an all-sport clinic for 250 youth at the Center that afternoon. Members of the Center’s Boys and Girls Club learned about a variety of sports, including basketball, volleyball, soccer and baseball/softball from SLU head coaches and former student-athletes. After the clinics, the participants had an opportunity to ask the coaches questions then take part in a carnival to demonstrate what they had learned.
The Caravan is available for stops where requested throughout the St. Louis metropolitan area. To get your organization involved, call Kosha Irby at (314) 977-3235 or contact him via email at irbyk@slu.edu.
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In addition to sport clinics at various venues, the Billiken Caravan will visit hospitals in the area and participate in mentoring programs. Another aspect of the Caravan will be the Billiken Speaker Series. This phase of the Caravan involves talks that allow elementary and middle school students to interact with college student-athletes in area schools.
