Food contest heats up fundraising

Chili cook-off warms stomachs while raising dough for area veterans

The Wolf Hole Hunting Club gives out chili and toppings Friday at the 18th annual Texarkana Area Veterans Council Chili Cook-Off at Texarkana College. They won first place in the Individual category.
The Wolf Hole Hunting Club gives out chili and toppings Friday at the 18th annual Texarkana Area Veterans Council Chili Cook-Off at Texarkana College. They won first place in the Individual category.

Friday's surprisingly mild, late winter weather didn't stop chili samplers from collecting at Texarkana College's Truman Arnold Student Center to sample at least eight different spicy, hot bean and meat mixtures.

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AP

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Hundreds of chili fans from throughout the Texarkana area spent two hours enthusiastically sampling bowls of the flavorful wintertime cuisine, offered by each of the eight chili stands during the 18th Annual Texarkana Area Veterans Council's Chili Cook-Off fundraiser.

Just as in years past, the cook-off's eight cooks represented three different contestant categories: Civic organizations, businesses and individuals. Chili preparations with names like Afterburner, Fire House Chili and Happy Hour Chili received thorough savoring by perhaps close to 300 local and area chili connoisseurs.

Funds raised by the annual cook-off help the council replace medical transport vans, which are used to take local disabled veterans to the Overton Brooks Veterans Administration Medical Center in Shreveport 52 weeks a year. The replacement vans are needed because they have to make a 140-mile round trip to Shreveport three days a week (420 miles a week total). Until recent years, the vans were making round trips five days a week, but there is now a driver shortage.

Greg Beck, the council's president, said Friday's fundraiser took in $1,175, which is about as much as the annual events traditionally take in.

While most of the eight chili chefs were seasoned cooking veterans, Delta Morriss and Terri Capps, both nurses with the local Texarkana VA Clinic, said the clinic cooked chili for the first time for the fundraiser and decided to call their chili "Heroes Chili."

"We heard about this event and we're excited to help veterans," Morriss said. "We believe our veterans are heroes for serving our country,takeoff and we plan to be here next year."

Russell Henderson, Texarkana Regional Airport manager, said the airport's chili drew its name from the fact that military fighter jets use afterburner devices to get some extra thrust in their engines by using the hot exhaust gases to burn extra fuel for takeoff.

Kyle Elliot, the airport's security chief, said the airport's chili is unique in that it's all about making sure the different flavorings work together, rather than having one outstanding.

As for Servpro, a local business firm which restores houses after they've been damaged by fire or water, Melissa Burkett, the firm's general manager and owner, attributes the business' "Fire House Chili" uniqueness to the fact that it is actually flavorful without being hot or spicy.

"Its a chili that is child friendly," she said.

Robert Hernandez, a retired command master sergeant with the U.S. Air Force and current chapter commander of the local Disabled American Veterans Chapter #222, attributed the naming of the DAV's chili as "Happy Hour Chili" to the fact that the organization's spicy bean and meat contribution to the event included some added dashes of tequila and Jack Daniels along with some beer.

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"If you try this you are guaranteed that you won't walk away hungry and you will be happy," Hernandez said.

Following the event, customers got to cast their votes for People's Choice and Best Presentation chilis-at which time the Wolf's Hole Hunting Club took home both awards, as it has several times before.

"This is awesome," said Darryl Jacobs, one of the club's members. "Our chili is hot, but it's also mild."

Other contestant results included:

 

CIVIC

First Place: Disabled American Veterans Chapter #222

Second Place:Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter #278

Third Place: American Legion Post 25-58.

 

BUSINESS

First Place: Texarkana VA Clinic

Second Place: Dierksen Mem-orial Hospice

Third Place: ServePro

 

INDIVIDUAL

First Place: Wolf's Hole Hunting Club

Second Place: Larry Webb Hazmat

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