Valley Jeepers to host family event benefiting March of Dimes
BY JOHN BRICE
FOR THE LAFAYETTE SUN
VALLEY — Local residents are invited to a family event hosted by the Valley Alabama Jeepers on Sept. 12 at the Shawmut Airport that will offer several attractions, including touch a truck, an open class car show and a craft fair. Jack Hatton is the founder of Valley Alabama Jeepers who is leading the team organizing the event.
“We have got an open class car show [available] to every make and model vehicle with 23 awards to give out that day,” Hatton said. “We have 15 food trucks that will be there and [more than] 20 craft vendors that will be set up there. We have [more than] 40 items we are going to raffle off. We are incorporating Touch a Truck with this as well — we have local police departments, fire departments and EMS that will be there. The big attractions are the Smokey and the Bandit vehicles that will be there. We have two Dukes of Hazzard impersonators that are coming in from Georgia, Uncle Jesse and Roscoe. March of Dimes will be there. For families that come in, they will be able to explain what March of Dimes does for mothers and babies.”
Hatton started the Valley Alabama Jeepers in September 2025.
“I had just recently moved here from Indiana, and I ran a jeep group back home with 1,000 members,” Hatton said. “We did different charity work for veterans, Habitat for Humanity. When I moved here, I didn’t see that many local jeep groups. I told my fiancee that I was going to start a jeep group and see what we can do.”
Supporting mothers and children through charitable giving to March of Dimes is a personal mission for Hatton.
“My daughter spent a lot of time in children’s hospitals when she was growing up,” he said.
“Anything to do for children, I am all in. This is my way of giving back to the community. March of Dimes will receive 100% of all proceeds.”
Hatton said many jeep groups exist to give back to the community, and Valley Alabama Jeepers is no exception.
“Some of the jeep groups like doing offroad stuff. A lot of the jeep groups that I have been involved with like doing rides, charity events and parades — just anything that can help give back to the community,” Hatton said. “I just want to bring the community together to [bring] awareness and improve the health of mothers and babies if they ever have to go to the March of Dimes. I lost my daughter 14 years ago to SIDS. That is one of the main reasons I like to do the charity organizations for children’s hospitals, because it helps with the research for people to understand what these hospitals actually do.”
The event, hosted from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. ET, is free to the public. The Shawmut Airport is located at 2300 12th Ave. in Valley. For more details, visit the Valley Alabama Jeepers Facebook page.
