Maddie O’Day and her brother, Ryan, love the Harlem Globetrotters. Their mom, Stacy, says they go to see the international ambassadors of basketball every time they come to town.

So imagine how excited Maddie, Ryan and other students at St. Aloysius School in Pewee Valley, Ky., were when one of the Harlem Globetrotters came to see them.

Herbert “MoMo” Evans, who’s been with the team for the past three years, was featured at a special all-school assembly last Thursday, May 1, in the school gymnasium. The program came as a result of the school’s participation in the Campbell Foods Company’s C.H.E.E.R. program, part of an effort to encourage positive thinking, living and achieving for students across the nation.

Stacy O’Day explained that the school had to qualify for the Globetrotter’s visit by first collecting labels from Campbell’s products. “We collected more than 13,000 in just a week and a half,” she said.

In the past, Campbell’s would reward schools with physical education equipment in return for the collected labels. Now the participating schools can receive anything they need, O’Day explained. “You can receive computers, overhead projectors, staplers, you name it,” she said.

After collecting the labels, St. Aloysius had to qualify on three or four other levels before earning the visit from MoMo Evans.

“My children have been really, really into the Globetrotters,” she noted. “Back in 2000 we saw them in Indianapolis, and they had a contest for a life-time pass to Globetrotter games and Maddie won. They’ve really been looking forward to this.”

MoMo Evans didn’t disappoint them.

He’s a personable young man with an ever-present smile who entertained the students with his basketball handling ability but also never strayed from the message of the C.H.E.E.R. Program.

He made certain that the St. Aloysius youngsters knew that the program’s acronym stood for cooperation, a healthy mind and body, effort, enthusiasm and responsibility — themes he said the Globetrotters have stressed throughout their six decades of history.

“We’ve traveled to 118 countries,” Evans told the students. “We’ve won 22,600 games and lost just 345. We’ve had eight female members of our team. When people see us, they think about the antics and all the tricks we do, but I want you to remember that when you see us, you are seeing some of the best trained, most physically fit athletes in the world.”

Before he goes to the gym for daily practice with the ’Trotters, Evans, 25, said he does 75 to 100 push-ups and 600 sit-ups each day. He also runs for two hours — then he goes to the gym.

“But all of this is about more than playing basketball,” he said. “When I tell people that I’m a proud graduate of Troy State University, that’s what I mean. I’m proud that I graduated in four years, and I’m thankful to everything my mother and father and grandmother did. Just like your parents are doing for you — they sacrifice to get you a good education, and that’s really, really important.”

Before speaking to the students, Evans, 25, said he’s lost track of the number of schools he’s visited since he joined the Globetrotters.

“We try to visit a school in each of the towns we play in,” he said. “But with the C.H.E.E.R. program, that’s something in addition to our regular schedule. Now that the season is over, we do visits for Campbell’s and the program, trying to help kids stay positive, stay on the right track and do what they need to do to get a good education and respect their fathers and mothers.”

Evans told the St. Aloysius students that he’s grateful, too, to the teachers he had in elementary, junior high and high school.

“I still visit them whenever I can to say ‘thank you’ for keeping me on the right track,” he said. “See, I was a knucklehead; I always wanted to go left and my teachers and parents always had to point me back to the right.”

His parents and teachers taught him “that knowledge is power, and now I want to teach that to you,” he said.

“Also, most importantly, never put anything into your body that doesn’t belong there,” Evans added. “That means drugs — say no to drugs. Start off taking care of your body when you’re young. Develop good habits, because it gets harder when you get older.”