March 18, 2022

2022 SEC Gymnastics Community Service Team Announced

By: SEC Staff
SECU (Twitter: @TheSECU)

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 2022 SEC Gymnastics Community Service Team is as follows:

Griffin James, Senior, Alabama A three-year Scholastic All-American and three-time member of the SEC Academic Honor Roll, James is a dedicated member of the community, giving generously of her time to a number of outreach projects, including volunteering with Cerebral Palsy of West Alabama and the DCH Cancer Center. She has also given of her time to Project Angel Tree, Alberta Head Start Readers, DCH Thank you Letters initiative, the Crimson Tide’s Halloween Extravaganza, ReadBAMARead Team Coordinator, the UA Thank-A-Thon, Smile a Mile, RISE Center Holiday Party and Working on Womanhood.

Amanda Elswick, Senior, Arkansas Elswick been a member of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee all four years at Arkansas, and has been on the executive committee for the last two. As treasurer and secretary, she helps in facilitating community service activities for the gymnastics team and for the entire student-athlete body. This academic year, Elswick has personally logged over 70 hours and averages nearly 12 hours and four events per month. In her work with SAAC, she helped coordinate several successful community events in the fall, including Healthy Hogs and Trunk or Treat. Elswick helped assemble first responder goodie bags, Thanksgiving baskets for a local homeless shelter and wrote and collected letters from fellow student-athletes for SAAC’s Gratitude Week. A member of FCA, she frequently volunteers at Cross Church in Fayetteville with the children’s ministries, combining her faith and service. Elswick is a three-time SEC Honor Roll Recipient and is majoring in exercise science. She will pursue her post-graduate work in physician assistant education.

Adeline Sabados, Junior, Auburn Sabados is the current Student-Athlete Advisory Committee Vice President, who began serving in 2019 as she worked with Habitat for Humanity and the Ronald McDonald House. She was the SAAC’s Community Engagement Subcommittee Chair for two school years (2019-20 and 2020-21), organizing the yearly Campus Food Pantry Drive where athletic teams compete to fill Auburn University’s food pantry for students in need. Sabados also been responsible for organizing and executing the Angel Tree project around the holidays as teams would collect toys and gifts for families in the community. She has either been in charge of or participated in World Read Aloud Day, Haddie’s Home projects, and organizing Valentines for Veterans. In addition, Sabados helped organize and execute the Giving Challenge with Georgia this past year. The two schools competed in a toiletry drive for the homeless and needy. The Two-time WCGA Scholastic All-American and two-time member of the SEC Academic Honor Roll will serve as the SAAC President for the 2022-23 season.

Nya Reed, Senior, Florida In the fall of 2021, Reed contributed 51 community service hours. A large portion of her time was devoted to one of her ideas take up by the Black Student-Athlete Council (BSAC) during the fall of 2021. Reed organized and facilitated a Hat, Glove and Sock Drive with the collected items distributed to the Gainesville homeless population. She has made visits to UF Health Shands Hospital and made cards for children who are Shands patients. Reed was part of the staff for the 2021 Harvest Food Drive. At the annual event, aspiring gymnasts can join the Gators for a gymnastics clinic. Admission is six non-perishable food items and the team contributed 540 pounds of food items to a local food pantry following the 2021 event. Reed helped wrap and distribute shoes at local elementary schools as part of the annual Florida student-athlete led Gator Tracks. Gator student-athletes purchased and distributed almost 400 pairs of shoes to local children in need of a new pair of shoes in December of 2021. A three-time All-American, Reed has been a part of the SEC Academic Honor Roll the last two years and earned 2020 Women’s Gymnastics Coaches Association (WGCA) Scholastic Academic All-America honors.

Emily Schild, Senior, Georgia Schild has been heavily involved with the GymDogs’ signee through Team Impact- reaching out to her, making her feel like a part of the team and keeping her mind off of her cancer treatments. She has been involved with Team United and the Special Olympics, participating in the annual baseball game at UGA and playing in the gymnastics facility. Additionally, Schild has been a mentor at the Barrow Elementary School, sharing knowledge and life experiences with young children, and offering encouragement and friendship. She has given her time to the Food Bank of Northeast Georgia, donating and packing food, as well as volunteering at marathons around the Athens area.

Anna Haigis, Senior, Kentucky Haigis has spent time with God’s Pantry, where she volunteers to pack lunches for underserved communities in the Lexington area and deliver them to schools across the city. Additionally, she has spent time in the UK HealthCare branch of the University and spent time in the community leadership and developmental roles at Special Olympics of Kentucky. Haigis was a member of the Southern Lights Stroll in 2021 and spent time in December with the American Red Cross. She has been in the Senior Citizen Pen Pal program in addition to CASA.

Sami Durante, Fifth-Year Senior, LSU In her time in Baton Rouge, Durante has spent a majority of her service time with children in the local community. She has done school reading at Gardere Elementary and spent time at LA Key School and Empower 225. Durante has also worked with her teammates at the Knock Knock Museum, Spooke ‘N’ Rowe, the Blue Ribbon Soiree and LSU’s Halloween Boozar. She is LSU’s nominee for the AAI Award, which goes to the top senior gymnast in the nation.

Hannah McCrary, Senior, Missouri In her four years at The University of Missouri, McCrary has completed over 50 hours of community service. She is a member of the Mizzou SAAC. McCrary has spent extensive time helping with Fun City Youth Academy, a program partner with local youth where volunteers tutor, play games and take them on mini field trips. She has also spent time working with the Special Olympics during various events. McCrary is a two-time member of the SEC Academic Honor Roll.