May 11, 2010

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Sophomore outfielder Kaitlin Westfall earned placement on the 2010 Southeastern Conference Softball Community Service Team, the league office announced today.

Westfall’s community service efforts included participating in the Junior Gamecock Club Back to School Bash and the 2008 and 2009 SEC Together We CAN food drives. The sophomore, a 2008-09 SEC Freshman Academic Honor Roll member, also volunteered for the 2009 Gamecocks Giving Back event in the fall of 2009, working with men and women with lifelong developmental disabilities at the Babcock Center.

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. The rest of the 2010 SEC Softball Community Service Team follows:

Catherine Dozier, Junior, Alabama
Dozier has worked nearly 100 community service hours this year. She has worked with Big Brothers, Big Sisters, the Lakeshore Foundation Project Angel Tree, Red Ribbon Week, Halloween Extravaganza and Pink Meet, an Alabama gymnastics meet where they recognize breast cancer awareness. She was also a volunteer at the women’s basketball breast cancer awareness game and at the Valentine’s Day celebration with the Glenn Haven Rehab Center. The Vestavia Hills, Ala. native has also participated in Read Across America week, Easter Seals Walk, Women of Tomorrow, National Girls and Women in Sports Day and Friends of Jaclyn Foundation.

Amanda Caldwell, Junior, Arkansas
Caldwell has participated in the SEC Together We CAN food drive, Special Olympics where she coached and Lift Up America, a food distribution project through Tyson Foods. The Victoria, Texas native raised money for underprivileged children and took them shopping for Shop With SAAC and she organized Sweat Hogs and Book Hogs, where she went to elementary schools and read to students. Caldwell is also the SAAC President.

Morgan Murphy, Sophomore, Auburn
Murphy’s community service efforts include the SEC We Can Food Drive; Beat Bama Food Drive; Student-Athlete Day, where she mentored kids about sportsmanship and responsibility, reading to kids at local elementary schools, volunteering to work Auburn Downtown Halloween Trick or Treat Night and the Richland Road Elementary School Family Fun Night. The Germantown, Tenn. native also volunteered for Toys for Tots and is the Softball Student-Athlete Advisory Council representative.

Francesca Enea, Junior, Florida
Enea’s community service efforts include: CAMP Gator: CAMP Gator stand for Collegiate Athletes Mentoring Program. Enea is the lead mentor for at-risk middle school students in the Gainesville area; Friends of Jaclyn: Initiated and led the efforts to adopt a 13-year-old from Orlando, Fla., who had a brain tumor through the Friends of Jaclyn Foundation. The team, led by Enea, texts and phones Heather on a regular basis, especially during treatments and she is a bat girl at all Gator game she can attend.; Gator Tracks: Enea co-chaired the efforts to collect sneakers to donate to children in the Gainesville area around the holidays and then wrapped them and handed them out to the children; Swing for Cancer: Enea created and organized the annual Swing for Cancer event in which members of the community came out to meet the softball team, children 12 and under participated in a mini-softball clinic and fans watched as current Gators student-athletes and coaches tried to hit off All-American pitchers.; Weekly Visits to Shands Hospital: Enea makes weekly trips to Shands Hospital to visit with patients and read and play with young children; Baby Gator: Enea gathered other softball players and visited on-campus preschools to teach the students about playing softball. The Woodland Hills, Calif. native is also on the SAAC Board, is a Wooden Citizen Cup Semifinalist, a Lowe’s Senior CLASS Award top-10 finalist and was given the Alachua County’s Work of Heart Award.

Jennie Auger, Junior, Georgia
Auger has volunteered at the Athens Clarke-County animal shelter on multiple instances through class as well as with teammates and she has participated in Relay for Life where she walked in the Survivor Lap having survived Leukemia during childhood. Other accolades for the Poway, Calif. native include being named to the 2009 SEC Spring Academic Honor Roll, the 2009 UGA Athletic Directors Honor Roll and the 2007-08 SEC Freshman Academic Honor Roll.

Natalie Smith, Senior, Kentucky
Smith’s community service efforts include UK Fusion volunteer, Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure, Salvation Army Bell Ringing, Big Blue U!, God’s Pantry Food Drive, YMCA Fall Festival, Northern Elementary Fall Festival, Skeeter Johnson Walk, Softball Camp, Special Olympics Polar Bear Plunge, Ronald McDonald House volunteer, Jesus Prom 2009 and Circle of Love. The Glendale, Ariz. native is also a three-time All-SEC Academiv team member, 2007 All-SEC Freshman team honoree, 2010 CATSPY award winner for Supporting Role, a member of SAAC and the Frank G. Ham Society of Character.

Ashley Applegate, Junior, LSU
Applegate has been a vital part of softball’s community service efforts. Below are examples of Applegate’s service to the Baton Rouge community. She organized LSU’s involvement in the SEC Together We CAN Food Drive where the team collected canned goods and donations at two volleyball matches in the fall to benefit the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank; Spearheaded softball’s efforts at the Halloween BOOzar where she set up a softball activity booth and provided local kids with a safe night of fun. She led games, handed out candy and signed autographs; Raised money with her teammates to provide gifts and clothes to an underprivileged child from a homeless shelter. The team had the opportunity to present the child with these gifts at the annual Christmas with the Tigers event. The Modesto, Calif. native was involved in Big Buddy Day of a Mentor where she allowed an elementary school student with the opportunity to shadow her on campus for a day, and she tutored students in math at Magnolia Woods Elementary School as part of the Volunteers in Public Schools (VIPS) Program during the fall semester. Applegate has served as softball’s representative on LSU’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee during the last two seasons. She also has earned back-to-back SEC Academic Honor Roll accolades and was a 2009 SEC Community Service Team recipient.

Courtnie Ghinaudo, Senior, Ole Miss
Ghinaudo participated in `Kids Take Over The Park Day’ in support of Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital; Visited St. Jude Children’s Hospital; Adopted St. Jude patient Hailey Hines along with teammates as an official member of the Ole Miss Softball team; Reading with the Rebels; National Student-Athlete Day; Collected shoes for youth in Haiti and Kenya and is an executive committee member of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee. The Lake Jackson, Texas native is a three-time member of the SEC Community Service Team, a three-time member of the UMAA Academic Honor Roll and an ESPN The Magazine CoSIDA Academic All-District nominee.

Jessie Bailey, Senior, Mississippi State
Bailey’s community service projects include: Member of the Mississippi State M-Club Service Organization; Reads to elementary school students as part of Bully’s Book Blitz; Collected and delivered food to underprivileged families during Thanksgiving; Collected and donated canned foods for the SEC Food Drive; Helped with MSU’s annual Fall Festival; Participated in drug awareness programs at local elementary schools; Donated clothing items to a local clothes closet; Helped with trash pick-up around Starkville and the MSU campus; Painted paw prints on the roads around campus; Worked softball camps for local children; Organized a volleyball camp for high school students. She is a three-time ESPN The Magazine/CoSIDA Academic All-District selection and has been named an NFCA All-America Scholar-Athlete and SEC Academic Honor Roll member each year of her career.

Tiffany Huff, Senior, Tennessee
Huff’s community service efforts include: Teams for Toys (purchased, wrapped and gave Christmas presents to middle school children in need); Juvenile Diabetes Gala (helped raise money and awareness for Juvenile Diabetes Foundation); Served food and provided clothing to homeless at a holiday dinner; “Light the Night” (helped raise money and awareness through a walk to benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society); Visited patients at East Tennessee Children’s Hospital; Habitat for Humanity (painted the interior walls for a house being built for a woman in need); April Play Day (spent time with kids from the Boys and Girls Club to help demonstrate the importance of education and exercise). The Saugus, Calif. native is also a Top 10 National Finalist for the 2010 Lowe’s Senior CLASS Award presented annually to the NCAA Division I softball player who best exemplifies the term student-athlete