2023 SEC Volleyball Community Service Team announced

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – The SEC sponsors Community Service Teams for all 21 league sponsored sports. The Community Service Team looks to highlight an athlete from each school who gives back to their community in superior service efforts. The 21st annual women’s volleyball Community Service Team follows:

Chaise Campbell, Senior, Middle Blocker, Alabama

Campbell volunteered extensively over the summer with the West Alabama Food Bank. She performed several duties there, including sorting and setting out food, prepping food boxes and cleaning. In addition to her work with the West Alabama Food Bank, she volunteered with UA’s CrossingPoints program, a life skills program for students with intellectual disabilities, attended the Kiwanis Pancake Day and helped with UA’s annual Halloween Extravaganza event for local children.

Zoi Evans, Junior, Middle Blocker, Arkansas

Evans has been involved with the Arkansas Student-Athlete Advisory Committee since her arrival on campus in 2021 and has grown in her role with the group through the years. She currently serves as the SAAC secretary, helping to participate in and lead biweekly meetings. As part of the executive board, Evans has also helped coordinate SAAC events like Student-Athlete Welcome Week and food and clothing drives. She is also a founding member of Razorback Black Leadership Athletic Committee (BLAC), which seeks to foster an inclusive environment for student-athletes through education, service, and fellowship. BLAC hosts regular events and provides programming for Arkansas’ entire student-athlete body to learn together and hold space for each other. This year, Evans is BLAC’s campus involvement chair, bridging the gap between BLAC and other campus groups that promote diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Jackie Barrett, Senior, Setter, Auburn

Barrett has donated almost 100 hours of her time on top of leading a top-25 Volleyball program. She has made blankets for East Alabama Hospital and hand-delivered them through the children’s wing. Along with other members of the team Barrett aided the work of Habitat for Humanity in Lee County to provide a home for a family in need. She also traveled to Columbus, Ga. to speak to a youth volleyball program and how to stay mentally engaged in the sport. Barrett was involved in bringing a group of girls from the Macon County Boys and Girls Club to a volleyball game and later provided more than 30 blankets to the group as well. She worked with the campus food pantry and has helped make meals for students. Barrett already has plans to make wreaths for a nursing home as well as many more activities to give back to the community she has come to call home on the Plains. She serves as the Auburn SAAC President. In her role, she has made sure the Auburn Volleyball team has been engaged in community outreach as well as the entire student-athlete population. Barrett has organized multiple campus-wide initiatives, including food and blanket drives. Last Spring, she was the David Housel Spirit of Auburn Award Winner, which is given to the student-athlete who embodies the character, leadership, and commitment to excellence that the university prides itself in.

Alexis Stucky, Sophomore, Setter, Florida

Stucky participated in visits to UF Shand’s Hospital, where student-athletes visit with children that are patients. She spent a lot of time taking part in the Gators Read program across Gainesville’s elementary school district. In addition, Stucky participated in the Gators Field Day at Noah Endeavors and served lunch and spoke with guests at the St. Francis House, which rebuilds lives for adults experiencing homelessness and poverty. She took part in the Night to Shine Prom, which offers those with special needs a memorable evening of prom dancing and strolling the red carpet.

Kacie Evans, Graduate Student, Outside Hitter, Georgia

Evans has volunteered her time at the Northeast Georgia Food Bank warehouse and participated in United Way of Northeast Georgia care package assembly for the elderly in the Athens area. Most recently, she spent time at the Athens Area Humane Society. At Georgia, Evans is a member of the Double Grand Club for registering over 1,000 kills and digs in her collegiate career. She graduated with her bachelor’s degree in exercise and sport science in Spring 2023 and is currently pursuing a master’s degree in kinesiology (sport pedagogy).

Reagan Rutherford, Senior, Opposite, Kentucky

Rutherford has over 20 hours of community service in the Lexington area, including donating her time to multiple charities and causes. Alongside all UK athletes, she has taken part in the God’s Pantry program where she packs sacked lunches for underprivileged kids in the Lexington area and delivers them to local schools in underserved areas. Rutherford has also participated in reading to youth elementary schools in the Lexington metro area, helping them to learn life’s most valuable assets as a role model in the community.

Madison Martin, Junior, Defensive Specialist, LSU

Martin volunteered last summer with the Area Health Education Center (A-HEC) to help high school students earn elective class credit with the healthcare program and assist with multiple service activities involved in the program. She was also a general college volunteer for Woman’s Hospital over the summer, working with the cancer/infusion administration and pop-up events. At the St. Francois Bend and Parc Nursing homes, Martin helped facilitate activities for the residents and assisted them with exercise involving memory care and physical therapy. She also worked with the Geaux Strong program at Woman’s Hospital, which helps children ages 2-18 with decreased strength, endurance, and motor skills. Martin, the Executive Director of the LSU Community Service Committee, has participated in several service social events with the LSU Student-Athlete Advisory Committee to help those in the Baton Rouge community. She has worked with Geaux Day, the Big Buddy Student-Athlete Panel and the MLK Day of Service. Maggie Miller, Senior, Defensive Specialist, Ole Miss In August, Miller and her teammates worked with the Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital in Memphis, participating in the state-of-the-art Seacrest Studio where they hosted live broadcast entertainment for patients and met and played with patients, sharing their love for the game of volleyball. In October, she volunteered with Oxford’s More Than a Meal, helping serve a warm meal to those in need. Miller helped lead the charge on the annual Feed the Sip food drive, which collected over 7,000 non-perishable food items to donate to children in Tunica and Quitman Counties. She helped organize an Ole Miss donation drive of non-perishable food items and hygiene materials to those who lost their homes and supplies during the tornadoes in the Rolling Fork, Mississippi area last spring. In the Oxford-Lafayette community, Miller has worked on various children initiatives, including Reading with the Rebels as well as the Ole Miss annual Trunk or Treat and Books and Bears. She also helped welcome students to school, participated in morning drop-off with her teammates, and celebrated educators through the College Football Playoff’s Extra Yard for Teachers initiative.

Rebecca Walk, Senior, Middle Blocker, Mississippi State

This season, Walk has helped with morning drop off at Partnership Middle School and Overstreet Elementary Middle School on several occasions. She has also worked with Starkville Strong, which is a non-profit organization that helps those in need in the Starkville community. Walk has donated canned food to Starkville Strong and candy to Partnership Middle School. She is currently serving as president of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, attending summer meetings for the SEC with other student-athlete leaders to vote on legislation and discuss challenges in collegiate athletics. Walk conveys information to MSU student athletes, while maintaining a positive public image with all outside parties through social media. She attends council meetings with school administrators once a month.

Lauren Forbes, Junior, Defensive Specialist/Libero, Missouri

Forbes has been active with Columbia Public Schools, volunteering in a multitude of roles. Forbes has helped during recess and lunch breaks at both Alpha Hart Lewis Elementary School and Russell Boulevard Elementary School. Forbes has also volunteered at Locust Street Elementary School and Cedar Ridge Elementary School for Tiger Tuesdays along with the Moving Ahead after school program. She has volunteered with Special Olympics as part of the National Student-Athlete Day Celebration. Forbes was named to the 2021-22 First-Year SEC Academic Honor Roll and the 2022 Fall SEC Academic Honor Roll. Ellie Ruprich, Senior, Middle Blocker, South Carolina Ruprich has done over 72 total hours of community service in her time at South Carolina, including 29 hours of service already in-season during the 2023 fall semester. Many of her hours this year have been devoted to helping at Harvest Hope Foodbank, both in sorting items and handing them out to those in need. Other projects of note include volunteering at Pathways to Healing Walks, Gamecock Games where she played different sports with children with disabilities and visiting local elementary schools to talk with students. Since 2021, Ruprich has volunteered with Fellowship of Christian Athletes as a Huddle Leader.

Morgahn Fingall, Graduate Student, Right Side, Tennessee

Fingall can regularly be found volunteering at Lonsdale Elementary, helping teach P.E. classes. In addition, she has assisted with Tennessee Athletics’ annual VOLoween night, which includes trick-or-treating around the athletic complex, face painting and playing games with children from the Knoxville community. Fingall was also a member of UT’s VOLeaders Academy, going on a service trip during the summer of 2022 to Rwanda. A two-time SEC Volleyball Scholar-Athlete of the Year, she was named to the SEC Academic Honor Roll every year of her college career.

Lauren Hogan, Senior, Libero/Defensive Specialist, Texas A&M

Hogan helps with Aggies Can, which is the largest student-athlete volunteer-driven canned food drive in the nation. The collections help those within the Brazos Valley community. A captain of the Texas A&M volleyball team, she is also a contributor to Twin City Missions homeless shelter, helping those in need in the local area. Her service also spanned to the international stage as she dedicated a great deal of service to the Texas A&M Athletics Mission of Hope trip, where she and fellow student-athletes travelled to the Dominican Republic and Haiti. The trip involved two core components: strategic ministry time and community advancement projects.