Spotlight on: Bluegrass Auburn Club

Club president: Kaye Hughes '86

Location: Lexington, Kentucky 

Auburn Alumni Association Board Mentor: Jeremy Arthur '99

Q.  What is your club’s biggest event?

The 2-day party and tailgate prior to the Kentucky-Auburn football game. 

Q.  How many members make up your Auburn club?

We have hundreds in our area, but generally we have between 10-15 at game-watching parties with some games being 25 or so. At speaker meetings and other events we have between 20-30 people usually. 

Q.  Tell us about your scholarships.

Our club offers scholarships for students attending Auburn from Kentucky. We just voted to work to establish a second scholarship that would be designated for a Vet School student – since we have so many Vet School alums in our area. We thought they might more readily contribute or participate in a fundraiser if proceeds went to the Vet School.

Q.  Do you have an annual fundraiser that benefits scholarships?

We don’t currently have something we do annually. We generally try to raise money at our speaker meetings, but our biggest bang is when Auburn comes to town for football. Those events bring in a large amount of money for scholarship that tends to hold us over awhile.

Recently, we finalized our license plate design and received final approval from both Auburn and the KY department of motor vehicles to start marketing an AU plate here! We are excited to begin the long journey of collecting 900 applications which will then allow us to go into production of the plate. Our plate design incorporates a tribute to the Auburn Oaks at Toomer's Corner – a little something different from most other AU tags. $10 from the sale of every plate will go directly to Auburn for scholarships for ANY student attending from Kentucky. It’s been 2 years in the making, but it will be so AUsome to see AU on cars in our state! An application must be submitted by 900 applicants... here is the order form! 

Q. What new events can your club expect this year? 

We are planning an Arbor Day memorial event to honor the memory of the Auburn Oaks. We will plant 10 oak seedlings in and around Lexington. Two elementary schools are the “Tigers” and several are the “Eagles” so we will plant some there. We will also plant some at the Arboretum across from Commonwealth Stadium (maybe in years to come, we can roll them after a win against UK!) 

We are also working on a speaker meeting to incorporate the new dean of Veterinary Medicine since so many of our area alums are Vet School grads. We will try to hold our first ever Freshman send-off and invite those ‘non-freshmen’ who are attending Vet School at Auburn (afterall, the are freshmen in terms of Auburn tradition).

Q. Kaye, what appealed to you about running for club president?

Just wanted to get fellow alums together on a regular basis. It’s fun to organize things and meet new people. I also like making an Auburn presence in Lexington – locals seem to be surprised that we’re here!