KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Trey Smith is out indefinitely for the Tennessee football team, but that hasn’t changed his mindset or work ethic off of the field.
The sophomore from Jackson, Tenn., wants to give back.
Smith spent the majority of his Tuesday morning outside of the Thornton Athletics Student Life Center, as he helped collect coats with Knoxville Area Rescue Ministry (KARM) for people in need.
“I just want to let people know there’s help on the way and you will be warm this winter,” Smith said. “No one should go a winter being cold.”
Smith took to Twitter last Friday to provide a message to the community and make them aware of KARM’s mission and its effort to supply as many coats as possible to people in need.
On Tuesday, Smith helped man a coat drop-off box from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Thornton Center along with other student-athletes and the Thornton Center Staff.
KARM hosts the annual event, ‘Coats for the Cold,’ in support of collecting thousands of new or used coats in the area. KARM invites the community to donate men’s, women’s and children’s coats at KARM and Prestige Cleaner locations across the state during drive weeks every November.
KARM received over 1,000 coats since Smith’s initial twitter message.
“I love this city,” Smith said. “The state of Tennessee, that’s my home. I’m always going to live here; I’m always going to stay here. I love being here. Just being in Knoxville presently, I always want to give back to the community, doing anything I can, because they’ve been so gracious to me.”
For Smith, it’s about giving back to a community that has supported him so much since arriving on Rocky Top in the spring of 2017 as an early enrollee.
“It warms my heart, honestly,” Smith said about seeing the community giving back. “Just seeing that people have care for others, and how they’re generous to actually come out here and help donate to a charitable cause.”
Smith, who captured National Freshman All-America honors in 2017, has made just as big of an impact off of the field in Knoxville as he has on the field.
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