BBQ Heroes
This is a story about ordinary everyday heroes.
In my experience everyone who was considered a hero was someone who did something out of the ordinary not someone who didn't do something.
The Golden Leaf festival at Mullins SC was originally scheduled for September 14 ,15 but was postponed until September 21,22 because of Hurricane Florence.
Initially 22 Cook Teams signed up as well as 42 judges.
As it turned out 19 Cook Teams participated and only 19 of the 42 judges that signed up finally attended. Of the folks who did not attend I appreciate their prompt notification that due to personal circumstances or concerns for safe travel could not attend. Their notifying us in advance allowed us to take additional measures to fully staff the event.
Now let's review the events after we learned about the reduced judge attendance.
Judy and Tony Lindsay who marshaled the Mauldin event sent us judges who were willing to switch to Mullins. Dawn Verbarg sent out a mass e-mail calling for more judges. Jim Wellman answered this call and judged at Mullins. Jim Bain (The Event Organizer) volunteered to judge and also recruited other SCBA judges living nearby to also attend. Mike Sexton and Dawn Verbarg interviewed Cook Teams about road conditions they encountered enroute and relayed this to several judges who were concerned about safe travel.
Now let's talk about the judges who decided to try to get to the event. First they decided to ignore the over sensationalized reporting of road closures reported by the "fake" news channels. Enroute they encountered several detours and traffic jams and in each case they decided to press on. The sum total of all their small actions and decisions resulting in their judging at the Mullins event. While these may seem to be small things it resulted in the SCBA having enough people to properly judge this event. The determination of these judges and the Cook Teams made this event a success especially since the City of Mullins canceled all the other festival activities and focused only on the BBQ competition. They truly are BBQ heroes!
Early on Jim Bain arranged for unique rectangular shaped participation buttons for judges who attended the event. We agreed to distribute these to all judges who participated and the rest were destroyed. These are easily recognizable because of their shape and signify their small but heroic actions by judging at Mullins despite Hurricane Florence' impact on travel conditions.
So to all Cook Teams and judges who attended the Mullins event when you are asked by your grand children and great grand children:
"What did you do during Hurricane Florence"?
You can reply " I proudly cooked or judged at the Mullins Golden Leaf festival".