MMCA: Serving the Community At Every Opportunity
The Marlin Men’s Civic Association (MMCA) has been serving Marlin and beyond since 1939, though it was originally chartered as the Marlin Junior Chamber of Commerce. In the 1980s, the group became the MMCA.
Current President of the organization Justin Childre doesn’t consider his job to be a difficult one, “as long as everybody does what they’re supposed to do,” he said with a laugh.
“This organization has the best group of men to work with. We all come together to get stuff done. We just try to give back to the community as much as we can.”
Consisting of about 35 members, with 20-25 playing a more active role, the MMCA does most of their fundraising and community events out of their building at 1104 Business Hwy 6 N. The space is available for rentals for all sorts of events.
“As an organization, we have our facility that we maintain,” said MMCA member Rocky Terry. “There weren’t a lot of places for the public to rent when we started, so we made it ideal for family reunions, weddings; it’s a small venue.”
“We have a building committee and we are almost done upgrading our building, but we want to beautify it a little bit more,” Childre said. “It stays booked a lot, and we are going to do some more modifications inside and outside the building. We would like to get some more weddings there, on the backside, maybe add a gazebo or something. We haven’t exactly made our mind up yet on what we want to do, but we are going to keep moving forward anyway.”
MMCA has a few annual initiatives, including their recent $10K Giveaway Dinner and Dance.
“We provide the meal for the buyers and kids at the Falls County Youth Fair every year, and we have been doing that for over 50 years. We also provide a meal for all First Responders of Falls County the week after our fundraiser in February, and Food for the Elderly is one of the biggest deals that we do in December.”
This past Christmas Season, MMCA served over 100 meals, and delivered bags of dry goods in partnership with the Salvation Army. In addition to hosting their own fundraisers and events throughout the year, MMCA supports worthwhile community efforts through monetary donations, including organizations such as the Boys & Girls Club, Food for Families, the Lions Club Car Show, and The Salvation Army.
“Sometimes we sponsor meals for the football team/athletics, just anything we can do to help. We hand out three to four scholarships per year. We have a scholarship committee, and they go through the applications, considering community service and grade point average.”
(Marlin High School Seniors, make sure to ask your counselor for a MMCA Scholarship Application!)
Michael Magouirk has been a member of MMCA for eight years and often shares pictures of their events; he is known for playing an active role in serving the community.
“I really enjoy doing stuff that gives back to the kids and the community. We do a lot of fundraisers and functions for the community, and give scholarships for the kids,” Magouirk said. “Some of the older members are dying out but in the last couple of years we’ve seen some younger guys joining the group and that’s what we want, is to keep going and keep providing service to the community.”
The MMCA meets every first Tuesday of the month at the MMCA building, and though they are not actively seeking out new members, any Marlin men interested in joining the group are invited to attend to get to know members and organization priorities.