Basketball legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar visited students at the UCLA Community School and other schools on the Robert F. Kennedy campus on Monday.
The fourth, fifth, and sixth-grade students received new Adidas sneakers and backpacks through Abdul-Jabbar’s Skyhook Foundation.
“When you see kids get excited about something new in their life, that's going to expand it,” he said. “It’'s going to give them some ideas that maybe they never thought about before. That's what I want to do. I just want to give them an idea about what they can achieve and where they can go to get the knowledge to achieve those things. “
Abdul-Jabbar also talked about how important it is to support students in marginalized communities.
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“There are some great schools and there are a lot of bad schools,” he said. “A lot of it has to do with politics, etc. But our children are our future. We have to give them every chance to be their best. “
The kids also learned about Camp Skyhook, where they can spend five days and four nights in the Angeles National Forest and learn all about the outdoors.
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