Eastern’s athletic department will host its final golf outing of the semester, The Panther Scholarship Scramble on Friday at the Charleston Country Club.

The Panther Club, the athletic department’s fundraising body, which was founded in 1981, sponsors the outing.

The events are also co-sponsored by the Alumni Association.

Each year the group organizes five outings at various golf clubs throughout the state finishing out with one in Charleston. This year’s outings took place in Naperville, Springfield, Mahomet and Mattoon.

Amber May, the alumni events coordinator for Alumni Services, said the events are a good way to bring alumni together.

“It’s a great way to get alumni back together, and build relations between them and the university,” May said. “It’s a way to raise money for athletics.”

May said the Naperville event, which took place in May, is one of the biggest events in the series.

“Naperville and the Chicago suburbs is a big place for alumni to live,” May said. “A lot of our big donors live up there and come out to the events.”

She said the actual event is run with help from alumni who are also members of the Panther Club.

“They have a committee of alumni who help get it all set up and get people there,” May said. “They also help run the actual event.”

Ryan Hastings, assistant athletic director for development has helped plan all of the events and said the reason they have the final event during homecoming is because many of the alumni are already in town for the football game and other homecoming events.

“We figure we’ll have them come in a day early and get in a round of golf,” Hastings said. “There aren’t many nice days left this time of year.”

The cost to attend the event $80 per single golfer or $320 for a foursome of golfers. All of the proceeds will go to the LAIR fund within the Panther Club for athletics scholarships.

Hastings describes the Panther Club’s LAIR fund as the  lifeblood for funding for athletics scholarships and they would not be able to provide the scholarships with out it.

He said that besides the golfing, the event will also have silent auction and dinner.

“At the dinner, new basketball coaches Jay Spoonhour, and Lee Buchanan will talk about people can expect in the upcoming Men and Women’s Basketball seasons,” Hastings said.

The event begins at 11:30 a.m. with a luncheon.

 Amy Wywialowski can be reached at 581-2812 or alwywialowski@eiu.edu.