Basketball & Hip Hop

What started with 232 students five years ago has now grown to more than 1,200, whom LeBron, Savannah, and the foundation staff meet with regularly to communicate goals and needs. At all their meetings the students renew their promise to finish school. Recently, in response to parent and teacher demand, the foundation started the Hard Work Club, covering the cost of teachers for after-school time and for additional books. And in 2015, LeBron announced free tuition to the University of Akron for anyone who stays in the James family’s program through high school (and meets particular requirements regarding schoolwork and community service); parents who came to the announcement wept. Through all this, LeBron pops in for appearances, hosts meals, robo-calls kids around test times, writes notes of encouragement, and wears a wristband that, when he’s on TV, the kids in his program can recognize as theirs.