This past November, the Montgomery Lions Club, Montgomery Lake Conroe Centennial Lions Clubs and our LEO Clubs collaborated for a fundraising event. This was our 5th Annual Chili Cookoff on the shores of beautiful Lake Conroe benefitting the Texas Lions Camp.  The event raised over $15,000 for the Camp.

This is not your grandmother’s Chili Cookoff.   The Cookoff has several moving parts to include 50/50 drawing, wine pull, charitable gift bizarre, “bags” tournaments, LEOs selling desert (some homemade), oh and we have Chili to taste and judge.  It seems every year we add a new distraction.  Sounds like a “Service Carnaval”.

This little machine requires many different skillsets to make this event happen.  You need: a big enough place with utilities and accessibility, cooking teams, fundraising, advertising, logistical support (cups, plates, napkins, and office supplies.  Our two Clubs worked together to select five judges.   One is an active Lion. Current and Past District Governors are a great fit if Stephen Mabry from the Camp is not available.

We energized the Community with multimedia advertising, social media posts, Lions Club and other group announcements, posted notices and word of mouth.  The Community involvement starts with cooking team recruiting.  The first year, we were Lions teams only.   We got the Community involved by opening this event to the entire Community.  The draw was the Chili tasting by the general public, our Community.  For a couple of bucks, the Community could purchase a cup, napkin and spoon and sample all the chili they wanted.  If you had any food room left, we had plenty of homemade and store-bought deserts.  The Community participated in the “bags” tournaments, bid on the Charitable Gift prizes at the bizarre, while they danced and grooved to the background music.  This was a family centric event where families from all over the Montgomery County, supported our Texas Lions Camp by cooking or visiting to our cookoff.

‘Here comes the judges.”  Yes, we had a “senior” Lion as a head judge and the four other positions were filled by first responders (Firefighters this year, Montgomery Police Chief,  County Sheriff and Constables), local government leaders (Montgomery Mayor this year) like County Commissioners, School Board members and a superintendent, and Community leaders like pastors, priest, civic group leaders, business people, members of the media and of course our local Chamber of Commerce.

So why do we do this?  Our Community:  We help bring our neighbors out of their comfort zones and give them an opportunity to see their Community and the people that comprise it. You can also pickup so good ideas for your Chili and deserts.  Our Camp: Texas Lions support our Texas Lions Camp financial, physically and we spread the word about our “Jewel in the Hill Country” that has served over 85,000 special needs children, at no cost to the children.  Our sponsors and donors:  get a local thank you for supporting their, our Community.   Who else could use some positive publicity.  Our helpers: Lions and other servants helped plan, prepared, implement the plan then stayed late to clean up the mess.  The mess is not normally too bad, this is Texas after all.