500 for Waterfront Festival
CAYUGA Center Street in Cayuga smelled like a restaurant Saturday afternoon with 13 chili chefs cooking their fare inside and outside Veterans Memorial Hall, hoping to be the winner of the village’s chili cook off.
“It’s a great day,” said Mayor of the Village of Cayuga William Sherman. “We’re glad to see everybody here.”
Members of the original board for the Cayuga Waterfront Festival all resigned after last year, so Don Wilson Jr. and three others stepped up to the plate. It’s the first year they’ve held a chili cook off, but Wilson was pleased with the turnout.
“We wanted to get some people out in the village and see if they’ll support us, and it’s really taken off,” Wilson said. “We’ve been very lucky and fortunate.”
The event, which also included music by DJ Doug, face painting and vendors, raised approximately $1,500 for the village’s Waterfront Festival, which will be in its 10th year this August.
The cook off was split into two categories. One was a blind taste test by judges Kevin Grish, the pastor of United Methodist Church in Cayuga, Linda Uebelman, a former chair of the Cayuga Waterfront Festival and Pam Giannino, owner of Be Happy Cafe in Union Springs. The other was a people’s choice vote by audience members.
Judges awarded third place to Devin Fricano, of Cayuga, second place to Darvy Darrah, of Cayuga, and first place to the Davis Pointers Tim and Kelly Carmon and Joe and Nancy Urbanik, of Davis Point.
Cole has competed in chili competitions before, but she hadn’t in a few years. She said she was pumped to enter this one, and to help support the festival in August.
“We’ve gone every year,” she said about the Waterfront Festival. “It’s a good time.”
Several items were raffled off at the festival, too, including a MacKenzie Childs bowl that was donated, and a wine and cheese set donated by Mayor William Sherman and Village Clerk Debbie Pinckney. Winner of the 50 50 raffle, Cheri Palmer, donated back the money back that she had won. So did several of the chili chef winners. Reading test the reading was really difficult, the topics were as essay service follows passage 1
