The 19th annual Sports Reach fundraising auction was held Tuesday, October 22, 2024, at Sevens Valley Baptist Church in Elizabethtown, KY. Sports Reach was started while cofounders Robby Speer and Larry Pursiful were on the church staff at Severns Valley in 1986! It was great to be back where it all began, albeit at the church’s new campus location.
We enjoyed having around 150 join us for the evening to celebrate all the ministry that has occurred and to raise funds for the 2025 year moving forward. We had 70 items with half of those being big live items and the other half silent auction items. As always, Kentucky basketball tickets and dinners with UK legends went for large amounts, but also the great autographed baseball memorabilia we had this year helped raise a lot of funds. Big Red Machine Great 8 autographed baseballs, a Shohei Ohtani autographed jersey, a Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez autographed New York Yankees jersey, and an autographed Mickey Mantle and Joe DiMaggio framed picture just to name a few of the items.
Bob Valvano, host of the V Show on Louisville’s ESPN radio was a great emcee, John Rogers, Sarge Pollock, Carl Smith, and Craig Connatser all shared excellent testimonies of the many ways Sports Reach has impacted them and thousands of lives through the years! Robby Speer and Carl Smith both prayed beautiful sincere prayers over the evening, the ministry, and also for the hurricane victims in Florida, North Carolina, and Tennessee. By the evening’s conclusion, God was glorified, and a significant portion of our 2025 budget was funded. We are eternally grateful to everyone who attended, gave, and participated in this year’s auction. We are so excited about all that God is going to do through us, thanks to your support and encouragement in 2025!
