Melvin Smith to speak at Marengo Auburn Club

The Marengo County Auburn Club is readying to host its annual banquet, an occasion that will welcome AU cornerbacks coach Melvin Smith as its guest speaker this year.

Smith has 18 years experience in the Southeastern Conference and has spent the last seven of them in the secondary at Mississippi State.

Regarded as one of the conference’s better recruiters, Smith has also coached at Alabama, Texas A&M, Ole Miss and Delta State in his 31-year career.

The event is slated for May 1 at the Demopolis Country Club and will begin with a social at 6 p.m. before dinner is served at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are $25 in advance and $30 at the door and can be obtained at Papa’s Foods in Linden, Holiday Cleaners in Demopolis or the downtown branch of Robertson Banking Company.

“We are funding an endowed scholarship for a student in Marengo County,” MC Auburn Club President Sean Parker said of the fundraising effort. “Our scholarship will go into place when we reach our $12,500 goal and we are only $3,00 from that goal. We really hope to finish funding the scholarship this year.”

Parker credited club members Bill Meador, Katie Windham, Jason Windham and Patricia Quinney with doing much of the needed work in organizing this, the fourth year of the banquet.

Individuals wishing to make donations or to get more information regarding the Marengo County Auburn Club can do so by contacting Parker at sean@espn1049.com.

The club is also planning other events this year that could include a bus trip to an Auburn home game or a joint golf tournament with Sumter Tide, the Sumter County based University of Alabama support group.

“This is not an Auburn alumni club,” Parker stressed about the nature of the group. “It is for Auburn fans, family and alumni. We’re trying to do a good thing by giving funding to a bright kid in our county.”

Parker also emphasized that club membership is open to those in Hale, Greene and Sumter counties where no such Auburn club exists.