A star-studded event is planned for the Vicksburg Child and Parent Center, as they will host their 30th Anniversary Banquet Gala at the Vicksburg Convention Center Friday at 6 p.m.

The banquet will be an Academy Awards style event consisting of 11 celebrities. The 11 celebrities attending the event will be a combination of nationally known and local celebrities. The twist is no one attending the event will know who these celebrities are until the banquet actually starts. The list of celebrities includes former NBA and NFL players and former television show stars.

“This is a really exciting time for us,” Erma Driver, the executive director of the CAP Center said. “It means a lot to have this event to celebrate 30 years of child advocacy in the Warren county and the state of Mississippi area.”

A native of Houston, Texas, Driver has been involved with the center for almost 6 years and has watched it grow every year she has been there.

Driver credits the success of the growth of the CAP Center to the partnership with the Vicksburg Warren School District and the relationship with the different partners and collaborators.

“It’s a great time for us to come together as friends to celebrate this great achievement,” Driver said. “All the help and support we have received helped us get to this point.”

It was a long and tough road to reach this level of importance and magnitude. James Wilkerson, a member of the advisory board for the CAP Center, remembers the tough days over the span of the last 30 years and expressed his gratitude for making it this long.

It all started with getting involved with United Way and with their help, they hit the ground running.

“The first couple of years starting this up were really, really tough,” Wilkerson said. “We really appreciate the way people believed in us and supported us and thankfully we were able to become affiliated with United Way and start getting support that way.”

Driver expressed that it’s a momentous time for the CAP Center to hold an event like this at the convention center and it shows all the hard work the center has put forward to host the banquet of 30 years.

The gifts from people and local companies have helped make this anniversary event come to reality and being around for 30 years will help progress them to even greater heights in the future.

“We’ve had an overwhelming amount of support of volunteers and from people who just wanted to get involved,” Driver said. “That’s momentous in every sense of the word.”

The event starts at 6 p.m. with cocktails and the dinner will begin at 7 p.m. Tickets are on sale now for $35. For more information, call 601-634-0557.