BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – LSU sophomore gymnast Ericka Garcia was named to the 2011 Southeastern Conference Community Service Team, the league office announced Wednesday.
The SEC sponsors a Community Service Team for each of the 20 sports it sponsors, and the team looks to highlight an athlete from each school who gives back to their community in superior service efforts.
A native of Mexico City, Mexico, Garcia is one of the most active members of the gymnastics team in the local community.
She has been involved in several service projects in the past year. She served as a volunteer for LSU Greening Day where she helped beautify the campus by mulching flower beds and planting flowers. She also volunteered at the Habitat for Humanity building project where she helped build a house in north Baton Rouge by painting, caulking and putting up walls with other student-athletes.
Garcia participated in the American Heart Association’s Go Healthy Challenge by setting up physical fitness stations for local children, and she also worked one-on-one with the children to promote a healthy lifestyle to combat childhood obesity.
She currently volunteers in the Public Schools Everybody Reads Program where she has been paired up with a student at Dufrocq Elementary in Baton Rouge and works with the child on reading and self esteem skills.
Along with the rest of the gymnastics team, Garcia volunteered in the Wheels to Succeed program where she helped kids with special needs participate in a race around LSU’s campus, and she took part in Operation Christmas Child which is a project run by Samaritan’s Purse to send school supplies, toiletries and small toys to children in third-world countries during the holiday season.
Garcia also serves on the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) as a gymnastics representative, and she is very active in the Fellowship of Christian Athletes at LSU.
Garcia recently began competing as an all-arounder for the Tigers, but she tore her ACL at Alabama on March 11 and will miss the rest of the season.
LSU will compete at the SEC Championship at 4 p.m. CT Saturday in the BJCC Arena in Birmingham.