Ex-LSU star Leonard Fournette makes big gesture, pays for student's entire tuition
Former LSU Tiger and current Jacksonville Jaguar Leonard Fournette took the idea of a random act of kindness to a whole new level this week.
Fournette saw a tweet from one of his college trainers in which she requested help to pay for her $10,000 senior-year tuition.
I have 2 come out of pocket to pay for my senior year. It’s 10k for the entire year! I currently work 2jobs for the other 5k! $1, $5 ANYTHING HELPS! I’ve come too far to stop here! Thank you everyone! Plz RT!
Please support my GoFundMe campaign: https://t.co/Grcurw78tS @gofundme
— ⚜️five-eaux-feaux⚜️ (@jhanenichol_) July 2, 2018
The student, Jhane Garner, worked with the LSU football team and, like Fournette, is also from New Orleans. That’s when the running back and his former teammate, Derrius Guice, sprung into action.
Guice gave Garner $1,000 to help cover the tuition and his LSU backfield-mate, Fournette, then offered to cover the remaining balance.
When Garner saw the tweet, she was at work and was so overcome with emotion that her employer allowed her to leave work.
"I couldn't stop crying."
Jhané Garner TOPS support had run out and she faced $11,000 in tuition expenses this year. She started a gofundme account. @DhaSickest retweeted + gave $1,000. @_fournette eventually paid off what was remaining. @WAFB @jhanenichol_ pic.twitter.com/fIoRCKKUzz
— Jacques Doucet (@JacquesDoucet) July 5, 2018
“It was the biggest thank you,” Doucet said. “When I saw that tweet, I was actually working and I just started crying. They had to send me home because I couldn’t stop crying.
“I can’t even thank everybody enough. I can’t thank y’all enough. Because of these people, they helped me and I’ll be able to finish my last year of school. Words can’t even explain how much appreciation I have to everybody who helped me.”
Fournette has always made a priority of taking care of those who took care of him so he didn’t think twice about helping his former trainer.
A student needed help with paying her tuition. She was asking for $5 donations.
Leonard Fournette offered to pay all of it. ❤️🙌 @_fournette (via @WillGav) https://t.co/cSr6afA8L8
— The Checkdown (@thecheckdown) July 5, 2018
According to Spotrac, Fournette will make $1.7 million in base salary this season and is guaranteed over $27 million from his rookie contract.
It’s actually a bigger burden for Guice to cover the $1,000 than Fournette to cover $10,000. Guice was a second-round pick and is guaranteed less than $1.4 million over the life of his contract.
But both players would likely have not even reached this level if it wasn’t for people like Garner and the rest of LSU’s training staff.
“I guess I like to think of it as good karma,“ Garner told WAFB in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
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