We had a great day today. Today was the Chili cook-offf that our friends at Hettena Wright and Horton (HWH) were throwing to benefit the Friends of Sam and the Sam Cohn Foundation. HWH is a local accounting firm that does estates, trusts and personal income taxes. Every year they choose a local charity to sponsor for their chili cookoff. This year they pciked up Sam’s caused from the coverage in the newspaper. It was a wonderful event.

The Ethan Allen Club had generously donated the space to hold the cook off. The club has been an institution in Burlington for more than 100 years. It was a perfect place for an event like this

We arrived around 1 and the place was already filling up. There were long rows of chafing dishes holdinggllons of everyones best efforts at chili. There were three categories: hot, mild and veggie.. I beleive that there were 26 entries in all.

Folks milled about with cups and spoons and sampled the various wares. I was particulaly partial to this one.. (Ok it. was mine) a spicey checki pea concoction from India called Chole OK chile .. chole.. what’s the difference.. ?

The Friends of Sam had set up various tables with info, contests and handouts.. Here’s Phoebe and Marie watching over the chili voting bins

Here Diane, Matt and Paulo hang out at the donation box

Here’s Gabe hanging out with some of his friends

Ian and Nate played soem great spanish guitar for the folks milling around.. I thing there were about 200 people who came through ..

We had lots of Sam stuff around, pictures,SamStones, posters

There was a silent auction in the back with lots of great stuff.

Jen K made these awesome pottery bowls for the auction.

Her’s Conner the DJ keepign things lively.. (We later learned that Conner is our good friend Jackson’s older brother !)

Here’s Morgan with some Organ Donor info

Some folks were watchinga football game as they chomped on their chili

The tension mounted as it came close to teh time to announce the winners. Chris and Conner kept it lively with trivia contests as the votes were being counted.

And the winner is !!!!!… Believe it or not, The Freinds of Sam ! They won in the Hot Category.. It wasn’t even rigged since all noone knew who’s chil was who. They won based on the wonder taste of their secret ingredient : 5 cans of Red Bukk.. Sam’s favorite drink !

It was really a fantastic day.. We don’t know yet how much they made, but including the generous matching offer from HWH, we think the Friends of Sam made more than 3000 dollars today. Thanks so much to Chris and Judy and all the fine folks at HWH for making this Chili Cookoff a great event.. It’s jus tthe kind of thing that Sam would have loved. Spicey food, red bull music and lots of friends.. (about 200 I think) We all cetainly felt Sam there..

We’ll be back next year to defend our title !

Good night and good digestion all.. G’nite Sam
-me