On Thursday, February 3rd, 2022, Sertoma will hold their annual Friendship Dinner, an evening of fellowship and fun, at the Downtown Hilton. The night will be emceed by WBIR news anchor, as well as current Sertoma board member, Beth Haynes. The featured speaker for the night will be Coach Tony Vitello and the conversation will be moderated by WNML sports journalist and broadcaster Jimmy Hyams.
The Lifetime of Love Award presentation is at the heart of the evening's agenda and this year we are honored to announce the 2022 Lifetime of Love recipients are Mike and Marquita Stevens. In 2014 Mike Stevens Homes led the charge with our “Labor of Love" campaign by building beautiful new homes at a tremendous cost savings to Sertoma. These new homes ultimately provide a quality "forever home" to many of our persons supported and allows our organization to grow and support more individuals. Currently, Mike is involved in our most ambitious remodel of our oldest group home and when completed will provide a more efficient and quality living space for multiple individuals.
Recently Mike was honored by Southern Living magazine as one of an exclusive group of builders chosen for the Southern Living Custom Builder Program and he and Marquita utilized that platform to promote Sertoma and other non-profits. We appreciate and love Mike and Marquita and are proud to call them our Friends!
The evening's excitement will continue as we hear from our featured speaker Coach Tony Vitello. Under Vitello’s guidance, Tennessee won its first SEC Eastern division title since 1997 after posting a 20-10 record in league play and winning eight of its 10 conference series, including all five series on the road for the first time ever. The Vols also made their first appearance in the SEC Tournament Championship game since 1995 and advanced to back-to-back NCAA regionals for the first time since 2004 and 2005.