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Fairview Park in Bridgeville, site of the Bridgeville-South Fayette Rotary Club Chili Cookoff Fundraiser on Oct. 19
Courtesy of Bridgeville-South Fayette Rotary Club
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One of the 35 chili booths at the 2024 Bridgeville-South Fayette Rotary Club Chili Cookoff Fundraiser
Courtesy of Bridgeville-South Fayette Rotary Club
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Guests wait in line for chili at the 2024 Chili Cookoff Fundraiser.
Courtesy of the Bridgeville-South Fayette Rotary Club
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Volunteers at the 2024 Chicken BBQ, held at Bethel Park High School
Courtesy of the Rotary of Upper St. Clair-Bethel Park, Breakfast Club
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The chicken BBQ fundraiser also includes baked beans, coleslaw, dinner roll and dessert.
Courtesy of the Rotary of Upper St. Clair-Bethel Park, Breakfast Club
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Volunteers serve up chicken BBQ meals drive-thru style at the 2024 fundraiser, and make time to greet four-legged friends.
Courtesy of the Rotary of Upper St. Clair-Bethel Park, Breakfast Club
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Chili and barbecued chicken will be on the menu this fall for two area Rotary clubs raising money for local charities.
For each group, planning for the fundraisers begins months in advance.
“Once we know the Steelers schedule, we can pick the date,” said Joe Verduci, co-chair for the South Fayette-Bridgeville Rotary Club Chili Cookoff, now in its 18th year. The Steeler schedule is released in the spring, when the Rotary reserves the pavilion at Fairview Park in Bridgeville for the popular event that he said draws between 600 and 800 attendees.
This year, the cookoff will be held on Saturday, Oct. 19, from noon to 4 p.m. Tickets are $10.
For Brian Schill, club service director for the Rotary of Upper St. Clair-Bethel Park, Breakfast Club, finding the chairperson is the vital first step followed by the date. “Fortunately, the two chairs from last year are serving again as chairs, Sally Morrison and Theresa Kozleuchar,” said Schill. “They have 32 people (volunteers) to corral to make this happen.”
The chicken BBQ fundraiser will be held on Saturday, Oct. 11 at the Bethel Park High School’s parking lot from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tickets are $15.
Planning time is also bonding time.
“We start in April or May with a kickoff meeting and decide the date. It depends on when the high school can accommodate us,” said Sally Morrison, co-chair for the chicken event. … “It’s a lot of work. We really documented a lot of it last year (the process). Every year you get a little smarter and tweak things and do better,” Morrison said.
“Because we’ve done it for so many years, it’s almost a bonding thing to get together in those meetings. In the afternoon meetings especially, people end up staying longer to catch up for another hour,” Verduci said of the chili cookoff event planning.
The food is served up hot to ticket holders on the day of each event.
Volunteers cook the gallons of chili for the Bridgeville-South Fayette fundraiser.
“We ask volunteers to each cook five gallons of chili, and if they want to compete, we have four separate categories: restaurants, business, personal and nonprofit,” said Verduci. Last year 35 booths offered up chili selections. Verduci is hoping for 40 chili options this year.
“We buy between 25,000 and 30,000 chili cups and spoons. We don’t want to run out,” Verduci said. A concession stand offering hotdogs will be available for the non-chili crowd, and for the kids, a bounce house, balloon maker and face painting.
It’s a drive-thru only event for the Rotary of Upper St. Clair-Bethel club’s chicken BBQ. The club purchases chickens from Weiss Meats, which are then prepared at Bethel Park High School by the nutrition staff the day of the event.
With the help of the nutrition staff at Bethel Park High school, the chickens are baked on site. “We put them in the pans and they bake them and make sure we stay out of trouble,” said Schill.
Meals include a half BBQ’d chicken, baked beans, coleslaw, dinner roll and dessert. Last year, 2,300 meals were prepared.
Proceeds from both fundraisers are donated to local charities and organizations.
One of two large fundraisers for the Bridgeville-South Fayette Rotary club, Verducci said the chili cookoff has raised between $12,000 and $13,000 the last few years. The club also holds a trivia night fundraiser in the spring.
Verduci said the funds are always used to support the Bridgeville Area Food Bank in various ways including their back to school program and Christmas toy efforts, as well as other needs for organizations such as the local EMS and the Bridgeville Public Library.
The Upper St. Clair-Bethel Park, Breakfast Club’s effort raised $65,000 in 2024, the largest amount ever for the event. Funds were awarded to 36 charities during the Night of Giving celebration held in April, including efforts to support domestic violence victims, camps for special needs individuals, trail maintenance, fallen veterans and their families and others.
Tickets for the chicken BBQ can be purchased at www.chixbbq.org. Tickets for the chili cookoff are available at www.bridgeville-sfrotary.org/. Interested sponsors should contact the Rotary Club.
Dining and Cooking