{"id":468044,"date":"2026-02-11T12:58:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T12:58:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/468044\/"},"modified":"2026-02-11T12:58:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T12:58:13","slug":"former-lady-cougars-gone-from-boxing-out-to-breaking-down-boxes-wlaf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/468044\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Lady Cougar\u2019s gone from boxing out to breaking down boxes \u2013 WLAF"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ruthie Simpson-Ivey continues to lead in life just like she did on the basketball court<\/p>\n

\"\"Campbell Countian Ruthie Simpson-Ivey is Food Rescue Manager for Second Harvest Food Bank.<\/p>\n

LAFOLLETTE, TN (WLAF)- In her time of playing basketball, from Jacksboro to Campbell High to Walters State to LMU, Ruthie Simpson was never outworked nor outhustled. Today she is Ruthie Simpson-Ivey, and she continues to work, hustle and impress as the Food Rescue Manager for Second Harvest Food Bank of East Tennessee.<\/p>\n

\"\"For a February day, the weather was warming up just in time for the food drive.<\/p>\n

Ivey\u2019s usual duties were placed on hold for Tuesday morning\u2019s monthly Second Harvest Food Drive, hosted by the La Follette Church of God. \u201cIt was all-hands-on-deck, and I volunteered today, because some of our other folks could not be here,\u201d said the now grown woman who used to wear jersey number 52 for the Lady Cougars.<\/p>\n

\"\"Ruthie Ivey is with Scott Whitson. Whitson drives the big rig for Second Harvest.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really love being involved especially when we have an event here at home. I just live up the road at Fincastle,\u201d said Ivey. Ivey has been with Second Harvest for almost 22 years and described Tuesday morning\u2019s turnout as \u201cgreat\u201d.<\/p>\n

Second Harvest food distributions take place on the second Tuesday of each month at the La Follette Church of God. <\/p>\n

Scott Whitson has been with Second Harvest Food Bank for more than five years and drives the 18-wheeler. Whitson drives rural routes, drives the mobile pantry, like on Tuesday, and food rescue.<\/p>\n

\"\"There are more than 100 vehicles, four-deep in front of the church, wrapped around the Church of God parking lot.<\/p>\n

Back doors of vans and trunks were open through a line of vehicles that wrapped around the church building as the parking lot resembled a major traffic jam. Though there was one big difference. This traffic jam was moving along quite smoothly as volunteers lifted loads of food into everyone\u2019s vehicle.<\/p>\n

Folks, who expressed their appreciation as they drove away, lined up before the 10am event, and the food was all gone in a very short period of time.<\/p>\n

\"\"The drive-thru event made for efficient work in just a couple of hours of food distribution.<\/p>\n

Just like on the basketball court, Ivey, in her signature upbeat tone and big smile, chalked the day up as a big win for all involved. (WLAF NEWS PUBLISHED-02\/11\/2026-6AM-PHOTOS COURTESY OF WLAF\u2019S CHARLIE HUTSON)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ruthie Simpson-Ivey continues to lead in life just like she did on the basketball court Campbell Countian Ruthie…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":468045,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[703,49,48,82],"class_list":["post-468044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468044","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=468044"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468044\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/468045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=468044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=468044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=468044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}