The roasting of Toby Woodmore

The Rotary Club of Hartsville is hosting its inaugural roast Feb. 16 as a fundraiser to help the club fund its annual scholarships.

The inaugural roastee will be retired Trousdale County High School teacher and principal Toby Woodmore. Robert Thurman of the Rotary club said "To me, [with] a roast you have to be the right kind of person. Toby's had a long history here, he just seems to be the right person."

Rotary member Janie Oldham added that "We had discussion on that and he has been very influential with students for many years, he's touched a lot of lives, a lot of people know funny stories about toby, serious stories about toby, so that's why we chose him."

Oldham said Rotary had looked at several different types of fundraisers before deciding on the roast.

"We thought this one was kinda different, there haven't been that many done around here," Oldham said.

The event will be held in the Trousdale County High School auditorium at 6 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 16. The cost of admission is $20 and includes a prime rib dinner with fixin's and homemade desserts. Tickets can be purchased from any Rotary member, or Thurman noted some tickets would be available at the local banks. Tickets will not be available at the door, so anyone interested needs to pre-purchase.

"We would like to see lots of participation," Oldham said. "We think it'll be a fun evening with a good meal."

Managing Editor Marie Corhern contributed to this story.