The Boys & Girls Club Foundation of Morristown hosted its 20th annual Steak and Burger Dinner on Thursday night.

Attendees included club youths, board members and donors of the event. There was a six-tier donation process, with donors having event packages ranging from $200 to upwards of $5,000.

Following a private reception at 5:00 and a meet and greet with University of Tennessee Lady Vols basketball players and coach Kellie Harper, the event officially began at 6:30.

Before speakers took the stage, food was brought to the patrons and club youths. Burgers for the patrons, and steaks for the youths. Patrons were also provided the opportunity to bid on steaks being auctioned off by the club youths.

After three courses consisting of salad, steak, burgers and cheesecake, Boys & Girls Club alumni and board member John Jones took the stage to give the invocation, followed by Sherry Gibson who took the stage to perform the national anthem.

Next, familiar face Scott Reams stepped out to give a welcome from the foundation. Reams has served on the Board of Directors of the Boys and Girls Club of Morristown for 30 consecutive years. He has served as Board Chairman, Vice-Chairman, Vice-President and President of the Presidents Council (Executive Committee), chairman for 13 years of the club’s Steak & Burger Dinner as well as service on several other committees.

At the end of his introduction he welcomed Naomi Lou to the stage. Those who attended the event last year may remember Lou, the 14 year old Taiwanese-American student of West View middle school. She set the tone for the evening with her beautiful performance of Mozart’s Moonlight Sonata.

Following the performance, Reams again took the stage, this time to present the event’s Lifetime Achievement Award to Kay Senter.

Senter graduated from Morristown high school, now Morristown-Hamblen East high school, before going on to teach english at the school for 38 years. She was a finalist for state teacher of the year in 2004, spent 30 years as a councilwoman for the city of Morristown and 16 years on the board of directors for the Boys and Girls club, serving as president of the organization for a span of that time.

“It is an absolute honor to work with the board and the staff to go the extra mile to ensure we provide programs to meet the needs of our club members,” said Senter during her acceptance speech. “We are very fortunate and blessed to have John Seals as our director, and he does an outstanding job. I do believe that he has the club and the youth on his mind 24/7.”

Senter went on to speak of an “altruistic love” from every board member, to every club youth. That love seemed to span every table on Thursday night, with club members and patrons sharing good food, deep laughs and big smiles.

Next to grace the stage was Lady Vols basketball coach Kellie Harper. Hailing from Sparta, Tennessee, Harper won three National Championships as a player under her predecessor Pat Summit. She’s won 70% of her games as a coach of the Lady Vols.

Harper’s speech focused on her ten core tenets for success.

Number One:

“Enjoy working with your teammates.” You have teammates in every facet of your life. Colleagues, classmates, friends, family. No matter where you are or who you’re with, find a way to appreciate what that person has to offer collaboratively, and help each other flourish.

Number Two:

“You don’t have to put others down for your light to shine.” Be confident in who you are and what to bring to the table as an individual. Famine mentality is so pervasive in our culture today, resulting in people thinking that the success of others is an obstacle on their own path to success. Celebrate others and their accomplishments, and work towards your own.

Number Three:

“Enjoy working hard.” Find what you’re passionate about and do whatever it takes to work at it. Understand that hard work is the key to achieving what you’re setting out to do, and enjoy the process of working towards it.

Number Four:

“Your body language is a big deal.” You are your own salesman for your personal brand, whatever that may be.As trite as it may sound, you never know who you’re selling it to, who will provide you with the opportunities in whatever path you’re headed down. Enter every room as if it’s an interview for your dream job.

Number Five:

“Surround yourself with good people.” Surround yourself with people that make you the best version of yourself. People with common goals or people that support and nurture your own.

Number Six:

“Be proud of the person you are as well as the person you are becoming.” Be proud, but not complacent. No matter who you are, or what you’ve accomplished, as a human being you are intrinsically imperfect, which means you always have room to grow. Lean into that and be proud.

Number Seven:

“Don’t be too cool.” Don’t think you’re above anything. Whether it’s standing up for what’s right, learning, performing mundane tasks, interacting with someone else, the moment you place yourself above whatever you’re doing is the moment you stop improving.

Number Eight:

“Compete at everything.” This doesn’t mean competing with others, it means competing against the voice in your head telling you to take the easy route. Every choice is a competition against that voice, from the decision to make your bed in the morning to the decision to put in the extra work in school or at your job and so on.

Number Nine:

“Have fun.” Make the decision to appreciate the little things along the way. There’s beauty to be found in even the worst of days. You don’t have to look as hard as you may think.

Number Ten:

Love life. “That doesn’t mean that today’s great because you had a steak dinner, today’s great because today’s great. The sun came up, there was a beautiful flower, even if it rains, it was a beautiful rain,” as Harper put it. “There is a way to find beauty in every day.”

After Harper was done speaking, players joined board member Dr. Mike Dillard on the stage to share stories of their respective paths to the University of Tennessee. Crowd members rejoiced a little extra for Sara Puckett and Karoline Striplin, who chose Tennessee over their in-state Alabama schools.

Lastly, Scott Reams again took the stage to give his closing remarks.

“I have attended every one of these Steak and Burger dinners, and I think I can say without fear of contradiction that we have learned more tonight than at any previous dinner,” he said.