On January 10th, 2021, the Michigan State Basketball team put down the ball and picked up paintbrushes to honor healthcare workers and uplift patients with art. Partnering with the Foundation for Hospital Art, Coach Tom Izzo and the team hosted a team community service PaintFest, entitled “HeART Boards^TM for Healthcare Heroes at the Breslin Center. The players painted their own 9”x12″ canvas board with inspirational messages for front-line healthcare workers and patients. Focused with smiles on their faces, the players laughed and bonded as they worked to complete their canvases. “Most of us are trying to channel our inner Piccasso today,” says junior Thomas Kithier “It’s a way for us to take our minds off basketball and help frontline workers by showing how much we appreciate them.”

The team took their completed works of art, along with messages of encouragement and appreciation, and presented them to the essential workers at Sparrow Hospital in Lansing. They met the doctors, healthcare workers, and a few of their patients outside the hospital and Coach Tom Izzo shared words with everyone expressing their gratitude for the healthcare workers, acknowledging that none of the team would be able to play their sport without them. 

Watch the Spartans give back: https://fb.watch/3iOyic_mbI/