UGA head coach Kirby Smart talks about Columbus, giving back at Methodist Home benefit

Kirby Smart, head football coach for the University of Georgia, visited the Rivermill Event Center in Columbus, Ga., on Tuesday, March 5, 2019, for The Methodist Home for Children and Youth’s annual Giving Childhood a Chance Luncheon.

The luncheon is a fundraising event, and proceeds from the luncheon benefit the children of The Methodist Home.

April Mouton Beal, chief development officer for The Methodist Home, explained the efforts of The Methodist Home and The Carpenter’s Way Ranch as “a beautiful partnership” through which “we support children and youth who have been abused, abandoned and neglected in the Columbus region.”

Smart said that his friend, Laurie McRae, the vice chair for the Muscogee County School Board, invited him to be the keynote guest speaker for the luncheon.

“I love Columbus, I love the community . . . Any chance you get to give back to a community, especially an event like this, it’s important,” Smart said.