MOULTRIE, Ga. — The doors of the Moultrie-Colquitt County Boys and Girls Club opened up in 2009, a year after the economic recession, and after ten years the club is preparing to celebrate its 10th annual Founders Banquet.

Each year the banquet includes a special guest speaker; last year was former world heavyweight boxing champion Evander Holyfield. This year’s guest will be retired Naval Capt. Winston Scott, a former NASA astronaut and a former member of the Boys and Girls Club who boasts a lengthy resume.

Before joining NASA, Scott earned a distinguished record of service as a naval aviator and officer. While on active duty Scott served as a fighter pilot, production test pilot, and as a research and development project pilot flying, among others, the F-14 Tomcat, F/A-18 Hornet, and A-7 Corsair jet aircraft. Scott also flew the Navy’s SH-2F helicopter. He has accumulated more than 5,000 hours of flight time in more than 20 different aircraft.

Scott was selected by NASA and reported to the Johnson Space Center in August 1992. He served as a mission specialist on STS-72 in 1996 and STS-87 in 1997. He has logged a total of 24 days, 14 hours and 34 minutes in space, including three spacewalks totaling 19 hours and 26 minutes. Scott retired from NASA and the U.S. Navy at the end of July 1999. He is currently the dean of the College of Aeronautics at Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne, Fla.

Joseph Matchett IV, chief professional officer of the Boys and Girls Club of Moultrie and Colquitt County, spoke on the importance of this banquet as it teaches members of the community of the famous alumni that the Boys and Girls club have helped create.

“This is the opportunity where the community gets the chance to learn more about the Boys and Girls Club alumni,” he said. “Every speaker we have brought in has been directly tied to the organization. Whether it’s last year where we brought in Evander Holyfield or this year’s speaker former astronaut Winston Scott, who was a former club member. The club’s tagline is ‘Great futures start here.’ Although we can’t dictate the future there is a consistent pattern that shows the large percentage of young people that attend the club are successful.”

The banquet will be held at 6 p.m. Tuesday, April 30, at the Colquitt County High School cafeteria. An invitation-only luncheon will be held at noon Tuesday at the Colquitt County Arts Center.

This event is considered the club’s biggest fundraiser of the year. For the past few  years they have set a goal of a minimum of $100,000, and they have beat it each year. Funds raised will go towards direct service programs for the young men and women of the club.

Matchett called the banquet “a ten-year thank you.”

“A ten-year thank you to the community because this has grown to something more than anyone could imagine and we have yet to reach our full potential of where we are going,” said Matchett. “The brand of the Boys and Girls Club is the biggest youth brand in the United States and one of the top ten youth brands in the world. Moultrie expands that brand because it continues to exceed expectations and the community is a huge part of that .”