Crooked Oaks, Coach Pat Dye's hunting lodge, was a party in full swing Friday night.
The 14th annual Blue Jean Ball kicked off Thursday. Guests were greeted by Auburn University and Auburn University at Montgomery nursing students or faculty and country music played by Jay Hughes.
The funds from the Blue Jean Ball are put toward scholarships for nursing students at Auburn University and AUM: summer scholarships for Auburn and fall scholarships for AUM.
Nursing students at Auburn have to go to school during at least one summer; AUM students do not.
Stephanie Wood, development coordinator for both AU and AUM, gave an example of one student deeply affected by receiving the Blue Jean Ball scholarship.
"We actually have a student supervisor tonight, Lindsey Roberson," Wood said. "Her parents were laid off in the spring. She almost had to quit nursing school, or delay it for a little while until she could get back on her feet. The Blue Jean Ball really helped her. Now both of her parents have jobs; they can help her with school. But if it weren't for the Blue Jean Ball, she would have been set back a whole year. She's just one example of many."
This year, the attendance numbers are expected to be 700-750. One of the largest attendances was in 2012.
"We advertised it as the last one at Pat Dye's, because that's what we thought at the original time," Wood said. "We hit record numbers and raised over $100,000 and had around 800, 850 in attendance. This year, we're really close to that."
While raising money is a large part of the Ball, another aspect is being around so many of the Auburn family. Throughout the night, people mingled, glasses of sweet tea or beers in hand. After people had eaten barbeque underneath a new pavilion strung with fairy lights, they danced to country and soft rock played by Blue Denim, a band from Atlanta.
While the dancing was put on hold for an hour of live auctioning emceed by Coach Pat Dye and Coach Bruce Pearl, it picked back up until 11 p.m.
"It puts a lot of people who love Auburn and love nursing together for a great time of fellowship," said Dr. William Pope, assistant clinical professor of nursing at Auburn. "So, not only does it do all of those great things; it's just fun."
For a lot of people, this year's Ball was their first experience. Rachel Morell, sophomore in social work, and Tomi Obebe, junior in pre-med, were part of this crowd.
"It looks straight from Pinterest, storybook, like a fairy tale," Morell said. "They did a really good job with it. I'm super, super excited too. I love having so many people who are just in the nursing school. My mom may work there, but here you have two social work students and a pre-med student. So many other people come to support the nursing school, which is really awesome."
Morell and Obebe said they were very excited to have taken a picture with Coach Pat Dye.
"Getting a picture with Pat Dye was kind of surreal," Morell said. "Growing up in Atlanta, we would come here for games, so that was amazing."
Obebe said she was excited to see Coach Pearl.
Coach Dye was a popular man at the Ball. Wearing a vest, western shirt and cowboy hat, he took pictures with fans, signed items brought to him and was friendly and open to anyone that crossed his path.
"I love being with the Auburn people, that's always fun," Coach Dye said. "And I like to party! We're going to have our own party!"
Coach Dye left people smiling. It's obvious that he cares about the students, according to Pope.
"I love Coach Dye because he's just old school," Pope said. "He doesn't have much of a filter, so whatever comes up, comes out. He's honest with people. He has a tough exterior, but he's a warm hearted human being inside. He'll do anything for these students, and that's what he's done for 14 years."
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