The fourth annual CJ Smuin Memorial Hitting Camp will return to the Castle Country area on Friday, Jan. 24 at the Carbon County Event Center. The two-day camp will wrap up the following day with a banquet with dinner, a silent auction, and guest speakers.

This year’s event is poised to be bigger than ever, offering two age divisions for the hitting camp. Each camp will be led by former minor league player Landon Wareham and USU Eastern baseball manager Kirk Haney, among others.

The CJ Smuin Memorial Foundation is a nonprofit 501c3 organization. All proceeds from the camp go towards scholarships for local athletes, and support for suicide prevention and awareness programs. Local athletes who have received the scholarship in year’s past include Cooper Schade, Rylan Hart, Ridge Nelsen, Wyatt Falk, Maizen Prichard, and Madi Orth.

“It always comes up quick, but we are excited about it and all the hard work we put into it,” said Pat Smuin on KOAL’s Drive Time Sports. “Every year it seems like it grows. We always have a lot of people that want to help. We have a lot of coaches from the local area and others from outside.”

Once the camps end, the weekend will conclude with the annual dinner banquet, which is open to the public. Guest speakers at the banquet will include Smuin, Brent Wareham, and mental health specialist Nevin Alderman.

“The reason we have the banquet is because we want to get out there and let people hear our story,” said Smuin. “CJ was a good kid and there were no signs of what went down. We do not want anyone in our community, people close to us, or people we love to have to go through this.”

The cost to attend the banquet is $25.00 and with that will come a lasagna dinner from Sam Farlaino. You can purchase tickets in advance at cjsmuin.org.

Listen to the complete interview with Pat Smuin and Zac Jones below: