May 7, 2012
COLUMBIA, S.C. – Gamecock junior outfielder Hannah Milks earned recognition on the 2012 Southeastern Conference Softball Community Service team, the league office released today.
The SEC sponsors Community Service Teams for all 20 league sponsored sports. The Community Service Team looks to highlight an athlete from each school who gives back to her community in superior service efforts.
Milks worked with the Boy Scouts of America Adventure Crew on the Tuckasegee River in North Carolina, helping with a group on aweekend trip, kayaking and camping down the river. She also assisted with the Gamecocks’ efforts for SEC Together We CAN Food Drive and participated with reading effort at the Books and BBQ Night at Hammond Hill Elementary School. The Greenville, S.C., native also worked at three softball clinics during the past year and helped with the team’s gift-buying and gift-wrapping efforts for its annual participation in WIS’ Families Helping Families Christmas help. She is a two-time member of the SEC Academic Honor Roll and the 2012-13 SAAC Vice President.
The rest of the 2012 SEC Softball Community Service Team follows:
Cassie Reilly-Boccia, Senior, Alabama
Reilly-Boccia’s community service projects include speaking at an Alabama football pre-game luncheon held by Coach Nick Saban, initiating movement for parking rights for student athletic trainers, and working on improving food selection in the University dining hall.She is an Alabama Athletics Student Athlete Advisory Committee member and was selected for the Emerging Tide Leaders Program through the University of Alabama Athletic Advising Department. Reilly-Boccia is a Growing Tides Leader through the University of Alabama Athletic Advising Department, a Junior Leader Counselor and a speaker at several Tuscaloosa elementary and middle schools on National Girls and Women in Sports Day. Reilly-Boccia also participated in disaster relief and assisted displaced victims from the Tuscaloosa tornado. She assisted Notre Dame Student Athletes on their Rebuild Tuscaloosa trip and participated in Read Across America in Elementary Schools throughout Tuscaloosa. She is a member of the Friends of Jaclyn Foundation (Softball team adopted a young girl who had suffered from a brain tumor). Reilly-Boccia volunteered for the Alabama Athletics Student Athlete Advisory Committee Halloween Extravaganza, the Crossing Points program at Recreational Center and the University of Alabama Stallings’s Center with RISE Program. She helped with the Beat Auburn, Beat Hunger (canned food drive), the Easter Seals Walk With Me, fundraiser, Project Angel Tree fundraiser for disadvantaged youths and families in Tuscaloosa and West Alabama and she spoke to and assisted with little league softball teams at their practices.
Tori Mort, Senior, Arkansas
Mort’s community service efforts include assisting with Sweat Hawgs Kick Off, Book Hogs Read To Win Program, Lift Up America, SEC Together We CAN Canned Food Drive, Christmas Shop With SAAC, Special Olympics, Adopt A Street Program, Leadership Academy, Happy Hollow Elementary Halloween Festival, Rockin With The Razorbacks, Fall Family Festival and Samaritian Soup Kitchen, among others. Mort is a member of the SAAC Committee and has a GPA of 3.673 in Sports Management. She also traveled to Guatemala last summer with a group to serve the less fortunate.
Morgan Murphy, Senior, Auburn
Murphy has visited EAMC Hospital on Valentine’s Day, collected and delivered toys for Toys for Tots, volunteered at the Boys and Girls Club of Auburn, visited kids at Dean Road Elementary School, participated in AU Student-Athlete Day, a community service based program, collected goods and helped market SEC Together We Can Food Drive and BeatBama Food Drive. She is the 2011-2012 Student-Athlete Advisory Committee President and was the Vice President of SAAC in 2010-11. Mort has been an FCA leader since 2011 and was named to the SEC Community Service Team in 2010 and 2011.
Kelsey Horton, Junior, Florida
Horton is the Community Service Chair for the University of Florida Student-Athlete Advisory Committee. Among her individual hours of service, Kelsey has volunteered locally on a number of different occasions at the Gainesville March of Dimes office and frequents Gainesville’s Shands Hospital, visiting both the Shands Infusion Room and participating in Pediatric walk-arounds. On campus, Horton has taken part in a number of activities organized by UF’s Goodwill Gators program, including volunteering at a UF Volleyball match for the SEC Together We CAN Drive, while partaking in SAAC Pep Rally Flyering. Horton took part in UF’s Climb for Cancer Sports Camp, Gator Tracks gift wrapping party around the Christmas holiday and UF’s Thanksgiving food event. On two occasions, Horton has given stadium tours at UF to visiting groups. In addition to her work with Goodwill Gators and the SAAC, Horton is Florida Softball’s contact for Friends of Jaclyn, which matches children with brain tumors to high school and college athletic teams to provide support and spread awareness of brain tumors. The Gators adopted Heather Braswell in 2008 and she’s continued to be a member of UF’s squad, frequently spending time in the Gator dugout. Horton is in the process of leading and organizing a Swing for Cancer event for Fall 2012 that would carry on UF’s annual tradition for a cancer awareness event, while also benefitting the Friends of Jaclyn organization and bringing awareness to its cause.
Kristyn Sandberg, Senior, Georgia
Sandberg is actively involved with Georgia’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee where she volunteered in such activities as Walk to School with the Dawgs, Literacy Day, Shop with a Bulldog and various events with the Boys and Girls Club. She has participated in numerous Special Olympics activities, such as the organization’s annual SOAR Run, Prom and Field Day. Sandberg helped with collection of canned food in SEC’s Together We Can Food Drive. She assisted in creating Swinging for Shepherd, a home run derby with proceeds benefitting the Shepherd Center, a private, not-for-profit rehabilitation hospital for people with spinal cord and brain injuries. Sandberg has been named to numerous Athletic Director’s Honor Rolls, Dean’s Lists and SEC Academic Honor Rolls. She was selected to CoSIDA/ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District Second Team in 2010.
Ashleigh Gustafson, Senior, Kentucky
Gustafson has spent more than 400 hours in the community. She has worked with organizations such as the Salvation Army, Special Olympics, Habitat for Humanity, YMCA, American Cancer Society, Ronald McDonald house and the Susan G. Koman Race for the Cure. Furthermore, she has also dedicated her time to local hospitals, horse parks, community schools and churches, softball camps and the University of Kentucky. Gustafson is a three-time All-SEC Academic team member and twice has won the UK CATSPY award for Community Service. She was named the 2011-2012 Scholar Athlete of the Year at Kentucky and was also tabbed to the Frank G. Ham Society of Character at UK in 2012, which is the highest honor any UK athlete can earn.
Brittany Mack, Senior, LSU
Mack created and championed the “Geaux Play” program where over 400 sporting good items were collected at LSU softball home games for the special needs children of the Miracle League in Baton Rouge. The Miracle League kids were Brittany’s special VIP guests as part of “Geaux Play” day at the park during the Ole Miss series finale on April 22. Afterwards, the special needs children joined the Tigers on the field for a game. Other service projects Mack has been involved with is Thanksgiving with the Tigers, where her team adopted an underprivileged child for the holidays. The Tigers provided gifts at a special program, while also serving a Thanksgiving style meal. Mack has been a mainstay at Our Lady of the Lake Children’s Hospital Visit where her team went room-to-room visiting hospital patients and their families to cheer them up with autographed posters. During her career, Mack has earned spots on the SEC Academic Honor Roll, ESPN the Magazine Academic All-District and an NFCA Scholar-Athlete during her career.
Amanda Hutcheson, Senior, Mississippi
Hutcheson has helped organize “Rebel Reruns”, which collected shoes for youth in Haiti and Kenya. She also participated in the “SEC Together We CAN Food Drive” to gather food for needy families in the Oxford area. She has participated in `Reading with the Rebels’ and National Student-Athlete Day activities with Oxford area elementary students. Hutcheson helped organize “Kids Take Over The Park Day” in support of Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital for the Rebels’ April 14 game against MSU where children volunteered for various jobs around the ballpark, including bat boy, cheerleader and field crew, and fans donated toys and items of need for the children of Le Bonheur. She participated in “Move Mississippi” to promote an active lifestyle to elementary school children. Hutcheson was named to the SEC Academic Honor Roll and is a University of Mississippi Taylor Medalist. She was also a Brad Davis SEC Community Service Postgraduate Scholarship female finalist.
Misty Flesher, R-Senior, Mississippi State
Flesher taught fourth grade for the fall of 2011 at East Oktibbeha County Elementary School; taught all subjects with remediation and enrichment. Member of the M-Club (community service organization for Mississippi State Athletes) from 2007-2012, doing community work throughout the city of Starkville. Helped coach younger girls throughout the state of Mississippi by working four postgame clinics during our fall exhibition tour of 2011. Volunteered to paint paw prints on the roads from 2007-2012 throughout Mississippi State’s campus. Four-year member (2007-11) of the Bully Blitz Program, reading every week to elementary students at Sudduth Elementary and Ward-Stewart Elementary in Starkville. Organized and led Mississippi State’s Thanksgiving can food drive for the community from 2008-2010, bringing in over 4,000 pounds of food each drive. Volunteered helping at Carrington Nursing Home in Starkville, Miss., from 2009-2010, serving lunch or dinner and playing board games with the elder. Flesher currently owns a 4.0 GPA in the Master’s program of Instructional Technology at MSU and is a five-year member of the SEC Academic Honor Roll as well as being a two-time NFCA All-America Scholar Athlete.
Melissa Brown, Junior, Tennessee
Brown has participated in numerous projects during her career at Tennessee. Included has been assisting with the “Feed the Need” and the Iraqi Refugees Clinic programs in Knoxville. The Valencia, Calif., native has wrapped and distributed toys during the holidays to benefit “Teams and Toys,” has volunteered to read stories to kids at Christenberry Elementary School and has taken part in “Reading Night” at New Hopewell Elementary. She has also participated in events helping benefit the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) including the “Dream Gala,” helping raise funds to find a cure for diabetes and its complications through the support of research. She owns a 3.81 GPA in kinesiology and is active in Fellowship of Christian Athletes. Brown is a two-time SEC Academic Honor Roll selection and a NFCA Scholar Athlete.
