Charity and chili help abused children
The fourth annual Children’s Justice Center Chili Cookoff and fundraiser Saturday evening was an event filled with hot chili and charity as restaurants, volunteers and residents of Cache Valley came together to help abused children.
For a small price, residents could taste and enjoy the large selection of gourmet chili donated from local restaurants.
The restaurants included, The White Owl, Eddies Drive Inn, Angies, the Coppermill, Blue Sage, Einsteins, Caf Ibis, Caf Sabor, Village Inn, Chili’s, Burger King and Wendy’s. Even the Utah State University culinary art school donated a pot of chili for the event.
There were three categories for the best chili: fireman’s choice, law enforcement choice and the people’s choice. The winners received a plaque to hang in their restaurant.
The Coppermill won the fireman’s choice, Burger King won the law enforcement choice and Caf Ibis and the USU culinary art school tied for the people’s choice.
Additionally, a raffle was held door prize raffle tickets were sold and a silent auction with items donated from Utah businesses. Some of the items included a new Pro Form treadmill from Icon, two airplane tickets to anywhere in the United States from Southwest, and paintings from local artist Charla Monds.
The event raised more than $2,500 for the Cache County Children’s Justice Center.
The CJC, which opened in Logan in 2000, is a place where physically and sexually abused children can find help, said Rebekah Alpisa, director of the CJC. The center, which looks more like a house on the outside, has a professional team including medical doctors trained in helping victims of child abuse.
“It is a wonderful place, because it’s this warm, loving, welcoming, secure non-threatening atmosphere,” she said.
Alpisa said the CJC provides children with one place with all the services needed so they no longer have to move around to different agencies to receive the required help.
“The purpose of the Children’s Justice Center is to do the best possible interviews with the least possible trauma,” she said.
Alpisa said she was happy to see all the volunteers and residents at the fundraiser support the organization.
“This fundraiser is the most heartwarming thing in the world to see people coming together to help abused children,” Alpisa said. “They give their time, they give their energy, they give their passion to help abused kids that they’ll probably never see.”
Janna Anderson is the president of the Friends of the CJC, which is a volunteer group that organized the chili cook-off. She said the fundraiser is a really fun thing to do and it all goes for a good cause.
The event had a party vibe with jazz trio band, Jazz Pudding, which included guitarist Jesse Schaefer, a senior at USU majoring in music. The band, which has played for the cook-off each year so far, complemented the fundraiser with laid back jazz and rock.
-joelfeathers@cc.usu.edu