By By Matthew Nascone
Many of Atmore's finest showed up for a good ole' time at the annual Atmore Area Young Life banquet Monday night at The Wisteria. The annual fund-raising banquet had a Western theme with tables designated by Country Western singers, a barbeque dinner, guest speaker Scott Wade and an appearance by a member of Ricky Bobby's, from "Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby," pit crew.
Mac Macaneddie visited the group gathered for the annual event. The public might have been fooled, but just to let everyone know the suave player was none other than Young Life director Chad Green.
Atmore residents Emilie Mims and Lisa Reynolds were called upon to play a prank on Macaneddie in a skit before Wade spoke to the crowd. And what a skit it was. The crowd erupted in laughter as Macaneddie was fooled into believing he had a place to sit down, but as Mims and Reynolds got up, he fell to the ground and did not say much after that.
But the true purpose of the banquet was to educate all in attendance about what Young Life does for the youth of Atmore. Those generous enough to give were asked to give as much as they could to continue the program by Robbie McGhee, the financial representative from the Atmore Young Life committee.
The real treat of the banquet was not the kielbasa or the sliced barbeque beef, but the heartwarming story told by Wade, who is a Young Life director at Vestavia Hills High School in Vestavia.
Wade spoke of the broken home he grew up in and how he found a way to Jesus Christ through the mentorship of Young Life and Jeff Mayfield, a director at Young Life. This story was one of ups and downs and explained to the crowd the positive atmosphere of a Young Life group.