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By Carey Reeder | Staff Writer

The YMCA of Chilton County is prepared for its sixth annual Transforming Lives Auction and Fundraiser that benefits its youth scholarship program. The dinner and auction will be held at 6th Street Warehouse at 202 Sixth Street in Clanton at 6 p.m. on Jan. 27. Tickets are available for $30 per person or $50 per couple, and they can be purchased at the YMCA of Chilton County.

“The scholarship program is so important, and it provides opportunities for youth in our communities who may not be able to afford to participate,” Lori Patterson, CEO of the YMCA of Chilton County, said. “This one event every year helps us build the funds to offer those opportunities to the youth in Chilton County.”

In 2022, the YMCA of Chilton County awarded over $18,000 in scholarship money to youth in Chilton County. This fundraiser is the YMCA’s main source of income that funds their youth scholarship program. Scholarships are available to children who may not otherwise be able to participate in the YMCA’s different youth programs.

“We use the scholarship program to help fund portions of registration fees for soccer, basketball, before and after-school care and summer camps,” Patterson said. “There is an application process where someone applies and provides their household income and the number of people living in the home, and then we adjust the fees so they will be able to afford it so those kids can participate.”

A silent auction is live now online and will run up until the fundraiser on Jan. 27. The online silent auction is updated daily and people who place the winning bids on items do not need to attend the fundraiser to claim them. The silent auction will end at 8:45 p.m. on Jan. 27 and can be found at 32auctions.com/CCYMCA2023.

Along with the dinner and fundraiser on Jan. 27, Noah Sanders, author of the book “Born Again Dirt: Farming to the Glory of God,” will be the keynote speaker. Patterson said she chose Sanders as the speaker because the summer campers started a big gardening project last summer. The kids planted crops, weeded the plants, removed insects, harvested the fruits and vegetables and prepared them to eat.

“We chose him because his book is about how gardening builds character and how it forms you as a person,” Patterson said. “When we found him and realized he was an author of a book that talks a lot about cultivating your life and relating that to character, which is what we were trying to do in our gardening project, we were really excited to get him to be our speaker.”

Patterson said everyone in the Chilton County community is invited to attend.

Tickets can be purchased at the YMCA of Chilton County at 405 Ollie Avenue in Clanton.