Students in an MTSU program planning class are working hard to bring a disabled veteran’s quality of life up to par, and golf aficionados are invited to help.

The Bounce Back Golf Scramble is scheduled for Veterans Day, Saturday, Nov. 11, at Champions Run Golf Course, 14262 Mount Pleasant Road in Rockvale.

A scramble is a competition in which each player in a team of two or more hits a tee shot, and the next shot comes from the best lie of the group’s shots.

Participants can register for the scramble here. Up to 20 four-member teams may participate.

Proceeds will benefit Homes for Our Troops, a privately funded nonprofit organization that “builds and donates specially adapted custom homes nationwide for severely injured post-9/11 veterans,” according to its website, www.hfotusa.org.

Students chose retired U.S. Army Sgt. Bryan Camacho of Murfreesboro as the veteran they want to help provide a new, more accessible home.

Camacho was serving as an infantryman in Iraq in December 2007 when his vehicle ran over an improvised explosive device, throwing him from the vehicle. His back was broken, and he was paralyzed from the waist down.

The sergeant was hurt again in November 2014, when his specially adapted truck spun out of control on an icy road and rolled into a ditch. The accident broke his neck, leaving him a quadriplegic.

Sgt. Bryan Camacho

Dr. Joey Gray

“Homes for Our Troops is an amazing organization in that they build all over the country, but they’ll let you pick … what veteran you want your money to go to,” said Dr. Joey Gray, director of the Leisure, Sports and Tourism Studies Program at MTSU and an associate professor in the Department of Health and Human Performance.

Gray said her students must plan the golf scramble from start to finish, including arranging for fundraising, marketing, publicity, food, beverages, signage and sponsorships. The event also includes a post-scramble dinner, videos of people who helped with the project, and door prizes.

“Usually, you have about a year to plan events,” said Gray. “We have three months.”

Marcus Evans, an MTSU junior from Memphis, Tennessee, said he hopes to put his knowledge from the class to use in a job with a professional sports franchise after graduation.

“It’s kind of difficult, but I think I’m managing well,” said Evans. “I’m doing as much as I can because now I just started working at an off-campus job.”

Gray bases the students’ grades on weekly assignments and progress reports, as well as professionalism.

For more information, contact Gray at 615-904-8359 or joey.gray@mtsu.edu.

— Gina K. Logue (gina.logue@mtsu.edu)

Participants in the fall 2016 Bounce Back Golf Scramble play for a worthy cause at Champions Run Golf Course in Rockvale, Tenn. (File photo submitted)