Grace Trimble Earns Brad Davis SEC Community Service Award
May 7, 2015
LEXINGTON, Ky. — University of Kentucky women’s tennis senior Grace Trimble has been selected as the 2014-15 Brad Davis Community Service Award winner by the Southeastern Conference, adding to an impressive list of awards and accomplishments.
Trimble, a senior from Winchester, Ky., will receive a $10,000 post-graduate scholarship from the SEC in recognition of her community service work. In her career, she has dedicated over a thousand hours to community service work.
“I’m honored to receive this award,” Trimble said. “The platform that we have as UK student-athletes is a privilege, and I am thankful that I have been able to take advantage of that to help make an impact in my community. To be able to represent my University, UK Athletics and the women’s tennis team the past four years has been really special.”
The Community Service Award scholarship is the latest in a long list of accolades for Trimble in her career. She has been named to the Athletic Director’s Honor Roll six times and the SEC Academic Honor Roll in every season. She was inducted into UK’s prestigious Frank G. Ham Society of Character and was a Rhodes Scholarship finalist in 2013-14.
In the community, Trimble is the president and founder of Smart Shots, a community service program that provides athletic opportunities to underprivileged children. Partnering with Urban Impact, Trimble founded the program five years ago focusing on tennis, and has since expanded to all sports for local kids.
Trimble’s work has taken her as far as Ethiopia, where in 2012 she joined seven fellow UK student-athletes on a service trip to Ethiopia. The group interacted with the community members, delivered food and organized sport camps for local children.
Trimble has given back to UK by serving on the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee the past four years. She caps her tenure as the SAAC President this season after a stint as Vice President in 2013-14 and Secretary in 2012-13.
Through UK, she has also volunteered at the UK Children’s Hospital, local elementary schools and with Special Olympics and the YMCA, among other projects.
Trimble is the fourth Wildcat to earn the award since its inception in 1996 and the first tennis player from any school to win the award. Women’s soccer player Carrie Kuhnell was recognized in 1999, while football player Antoine Huffman was honored in 2006 and women’s golfer Megan Moir in 2013.
The scholarship is named after Brad Davis, a former UK athletics staff member and SEC Associate Commissioner who succumbed to cancer on March 2, 2006. Trimble is joined by Georgia football player Chris Conley as this year’s Brad Davis Community Service Award recipients.
Trimble’s Community Service Work
- Smart Shots – founder and president of this community service program, committing more than 1000 hours of her time over five years
- UK Athletics Service Trip – served people of Ethiopia in numerous capacities, packing and delivering food, conducting sports camps, and working with widows and orphans
- Breakfast with Santa – interacted with patients at UK Children’s Hospital
- Crossroads Christian Church – Sunday school volunteer for four-year-old class
- Ronald McDonald House – volunteered to take care of families’ chore list at the house
- Cats Cultivating Character – visited local elementary school once a month to interact with children about character building
- Hope Center – served in dinner cafeteria for men living at the Hope Center Halfway House
- UK Fusion – volunteer for Picadome Elementary School, organizing PTA materials
- Special Olympics Bowling Tournament – assisted athletes during competition
- God’s Pantry Program – packed and delivered bags of food to local elementary schools in Lexington
- Salvation Army Bell Ringer – raised money for Salvation Army throughout collegiate career
- Catholic Action Center – helped clean center for remodeling and reorganized its storage center
- “Spread the Word to End the Word” – spoke to elementary and middle school students at Tates Creek School to deter children from using inappropriate references to the mentally disabled
- YMCA Camp Counselor – tennis instructor for 15 campers in daily summer tennis camp
- Special Needs Tennis Clinic – tennis instructor to special needs children and adults
- SEC Canned Food Drive – collected contributions from football fans to donate to the SEC Food Drive
Trimble’s Career Awards and Honors
- Athletic Director’s Honor Roll, Fall 2011, Spring 2012, Fall 2012, Fall 2013, Spring 2014, Fall 2014
- 2011-12, 2013-14 SEC Community Service Team
- 2011-12 SEC First-Year Academic Honor Roll
- Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) Secretary, 2012-13
- 2012-13, 13-14 SEC Academic Honor Roll
- SAAC Vice President, 2013-14
- 2014 Frank G. Ham Society of Character inductee
- 2013-14 Harry Truman Scholarship recipient
- 2013-14 Rhodes Scholarship finalist
- SAAC President, 2014-present
- 2014-15 UK Sullivan Medallion Recipient
- 2014-15 UK Otis A. Singletary Outstanding Senior Award winner
- 2014-15 SEC Brad Davis Community Service Scholarship Recipient
Visit UKathletics.com for the most up-to-date information on the Kentucky women’s tennis team and all 22 varsity sports. For additional info, notes, and behind-the-scenes updates, follow the team on Twitter at @UKWomensTennis and on Facebook.
