There is a new home for the Peach Auction, which will now be held annually at Senior Connection instead of Jack Hayes Field.

“As long as the city and Senior Connection allow us, we want to have it here,” said Britt Culpepper with the Clanton Lions Club. “Everybody seemed to enjoy it, both the bidders and the growers.”

The move was made official during the Senior Connection’s spaghetti lunch on Aug. 16 and was followed by the Clanton Lions Club donating $2,500 to Senior Connection and the City of Clanton.

Inclement weather caused Jack Hayes Field to flood and forced the 2017 auction to be moved indoors at Senior Connection.

Everything was successfully moved over and rearranged to the new venue, and what first appeared to be an inconvenience quickly turned out to be a blessing in disguise.

According to Culpepper, once the move was made, it became obvious that Senior Connection was a natural fit for many reasons.

Certain advantages that Senior Connection provided was an air-conditioned atmosphere during the summer and space inside that made the bidding and purchasing process smoother.

This year’s peach auction proved to be a trial run, after Senior Connection had been the place for orientation signups of the Peach Queen candidates in recent years.

“The board of directors of the [Lions] Club met after that day and decided to give back to the community because that’s what we do in various ways,” Culpepper said. “We hope to do that for years to come.”

The goal at the moment is to have the Peach Parade end in the shopping center parking lot of Senior Connection, so that people viewing the parade can just park and walk right in to the auction.

“This location is the greatest because it’s also where the parade ends,” Culpepper said.

With the auction being the finale of the Peach Week festivities, the move inside ensures that it will continue on in future years, regardless of the threat of rain in the area.

“We’re just overwhelmed with joy,” Senior Connection director Vanessa McKinney said.