Union University held its 23rd annual Scholarship Banquet at the Carl Perkins Civic Center on Tuesday, Oct. 19, featuring musical guest Jeremy Camp.
Nearly 1,000 donors and students gathered at the event for a night of worship and university information. The banquet is one of Union’s primary fundraising events, and all proceeds fund student scholarships.
“The event went incredibly. We had a lot more moving parts this year than we typically do,” Jason Vaughan, director of development, said. “We could not have asked for a better turnout as far as the flow of the event and the message that we got to share about Union.”
The banquet event planned for 2020 was canceled due to concern about the spread of COVID-19. Jeremy Camp was the recording artist planned for that year’s event.
“His ministry is one that speaks to people who are suffering and tells them that God is still faithful even in that suffering,” said Vaughan. “Interestingly enough, over the past year that we’ve had, he feels like his ministry speaks even more to that now.”
Camp is one of the nation’s top Christian recording artists. He has been nominated for both an American Music Award and a Grammy for Best Pop/Contemporary Gospel Album. A film titled “I Still Believe” was released in 2020, which depicted Camp’s first marriage and the loss of his wife.
The opening portion of the banquet featured a presentation modeled after a late-night talk show, which was hosted by university president Dr. Dub Oliver. The show featured students from the engineering department who shared projects they had 3D printed using university resources. A student from the biology department brought a ball python and a barn owl to stage, which are resident to the campus biology program.
“They got to share why this stuff is important, what they’re learning in the classroom, how they’re applying that and what they hope to do with their careers,” said Vaughan. “This gave the opportunity for us to showcase what’s going on on campus and how students’ lives are being transformed and impacted.”
In recent years, guests have included musical acts such as Chris Tomlin and MercyMe. Speaking guests from years past include former U.S. President George W. Bush, Ben Carson and Donald Rumsfeld.
“Coming out of COVID, it was exciting to see people excited to be there, and I think that the attendance was bigger than we probably anticipated,” said Keaghlan Sheridan, administrative assistant for the office of the vice president for institutional advancement, who was involved with the writing and planning for the event. “Attendance had kind of been slow at the beginning, and we were nervous, and then everybody just started calling and saying ‘Hey, we want a table. We want to sponsor. We want to be there.’”