Central Texas Tolbert Chili Group

Special Olympics Cedar Hall 2/11/2012

      The 6th Annual Cedar Hall BBQ & Chili Cookoff for Special Olympics was absolutely wonderful!   A little chilly in the shade and the breezes made flame adjustment a little tricky, but 48 of you chili cooks came out in support of this truly worthy cause, and we can't thank you enough.

     There was some great chili and the judges had quite a task narrowing it down to one.  Congratulations to our old friend and Usual Suspect, Frank Flores of Austin who got top honors.    Frank is now qualified to cook in the 46th Annual Original Terlingua International Frank X. Tolbert-Wick Fowler Memorial Championship Chili Cookoff 'Behind the Store' this November 3rd!  Way to go!

     Congratulation to Zoee T., a Martini in the making, for winning 1st Place Junior Chili!   With Grandmother Janet Matthews setting the example and following in the family ways, Zoee'll be a full strength Martini Girl in the not too distant future.  

    We want to say thank you to Kevin Gibson of Lease Crue fame for stepping up to the microphone and conducting the auction again this year.  Kevin does a fantastic job of driving home the point of the auction in the first place - to raise as much money as possible for Special Olympics.  He got the prices way, way up!   Like $150 for a jar of chocolate chip cookies, or a case of paper towels for $40 - twice - to the same guy!  (Thanks Ron!)  Also notable was the nice wooden wind screen branded with the Texas A&M logo sold to Terry Wright for $145.  Terry had originally donated the wood used for its construction to begin with!

     Sam Fleissner's been paying too much attention to those commercials featuring a baby dispensing investment advice.  It was like life imitating art when she did her bidding based on her 4-year-old's urging.   She got some real nice patio chairs in the deal though.   It was also pretty neat to watch folks at her table pull out their wallets and pitch in when the price exceeded her limit and they wanted her to stay in for the win.  Mighty generous of everybody.

    Special thanks to Logos of Lockhart, Garage Door Services, the GEO Group, and Tuttle Lumber for their sponsorship and support of this event, and a great big CTTCG Thank You to Cedar Hall.  Gosh, we just love you folks!  We couldn't have an event like this anywhere else.   You work right alongside us to keep things running smooth.  You donate.  You participate.  You accommodate.  You even buy things at our auction!   Paulette Hayter, the owner, and Sandy Chapman, the manager - YOU LADIES ROCK!   We're proud to call Cedar Hall the home base of the Central Texas Tolbert Chili Group!

     We're also pretty darn proud of Tom and Jill Burrows too.   The cookoff went amazingly smooth in spite of all the different categories.  The judges were in and out.   We're lucky to call you two really outstanding Usual Suspects, and the folks at the Special Olympics are gonna feel pretty lucky too when you present them with "maybe just a hair over" NINE THOU$AND DOLLAR$ !!!   Boy oh boy!   Bless you both for all your hard work and dedication.