Staff Reports

SOUTH POINT — Chad Pennington football memorabilia will be on the auction block Thursday as the Miami Dolphins quarterback is the headliner at the first Lawrence County Chamber of Commerce Spotlight Dinner and Auction.

Today is the last day for tickets to the event that are available up until 5 p.m. by calling the Chamber office at (740) 377-4550.

The one-time Marshall University football star will be the keynote speaker for the Chamber fund-raiser to be held at the South Point High School.

Pennington is coming off of a stellar performance with the Dolphins being named comeback player of the year in the NFL. Pennington passed for 3,653 yards with 19 touchdown passes during the 2008 season with the Dolphins. Pennington will be starting his second year with the Dolphins after a nine-year stint with the New York Jets.

The evening will begin at 6 p.m. with a special time for networking, socializing and bidding for silent auction items.

Pennington is contributing an autographed jersey, tickets to a Miami Dolphins football game and several autographed footballs.

Each sponsored table will also have an autographed football as the centerpiece and sponsors are given the challenge of coming up with a way of deciding who gets each football.

Dinner, catered by Austyns, will begin at 7 p.m. with Pennington speaking afterward.

The football star will be introduced by his one-time coach, former Marshall University Coach Bobby Pruett.

Since his days at Marshall, Pruett has worked as an on-air commentator for ESPN and a spokesman for Friends of Coal. He resigned as defensive coordinator for the University of Virginia at the end of the 2008 season.

He was inducted into Marshall’s Hall of Fame in 1999 and received the All-American Football Foundation’s Johnny Vaught Lifetime Achievement Award that same year.

Providing entertainment throughout the evening will be the award-winning South Point Marching Band under the direction of Brent Hunt.

Table sponsorships are available for $1,200 and single tickets are $100. Reservations must be placed in advance by calling the Chamber at (740) 377-4550.