Mark Twain Area FCLA to hold Night of Champions Oct. 4

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The Mark Twain Area Fellowship of Christian Athletes will host their annual fundraiser, Night of Champions, Wednesday, Oct. 4, at Hannibal-LaGrange University in Hannibal.

The dinner and program will be held from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.

The organization is selling table sponsorships and individual tickets which can be ordered through email only jbrandenburg@fca.org.

The deadline for ordering tickets is Sept. 22.

The guest speaker this year will be Faron Kelly, vice president of Disney customer service, formerly vice president of Disney Sports.

Kelley started at Walt Disney Company in 1990 as a production manager and producer for Walt Disney Entertainment and from there he joined the launch team for Disney-developed Town of Celebration serving as the driving force behind many of Celebration’s early special events and marketing concepts.

After returning to WDW Resort, he led a series of ad-hoc teams through development and execution of multiple property-wide promotional events, including New Year’s Eve 1999, 100 Years of Magic, Magical Gatherings and the Year of a Million Dreams.

His marketing career continued with Adventures by Disney before returning to the parks division as the global project development director for Disney Parks, leading multi-site and property-wide celebrations.

Faron joined the sports organization in 2008 as the marketing director and was responsible for all aspects of marketing including the rebranding of the sports complex to incorporate ESPN and the launch and global growth of the runDisney brand.

In 2016, Kelley was promoted to vice president of operations for ESPN Wide World of Sports, runDisney and Disney Water Parks.

During his time there, he led the organization through such events as the Invictus Games, NFL Pro Bowl events, the Warrior Games and the NBA and MLS “Bubbles” held during the global pandemic of 2020.

In July 2023, he transitioned to a new role as the vice president of Walt Disney World Customer Experience with a focus on optimizing the end-to-end interactions between consumers and the organization.

He is a graduate of Iowa State University where he received a bachelor’s degree in marketing, and he also holds a a master of business administration from Indiana University.

There will be other speakers, including testimonies from area coaches and athletes.