Chili festival another success

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Downtown Urbana was a bustling place, Sept. 24 as 28 chili contestants fired up their kettles in hopes of winning the grand prize of $1,000 and 30 additional vendors selling fresh produce, crafts, pumpkins, gourds, and delicious food filled the streets! The 10th Annual Simon Kenton Chili Cook- off Festival and Hoopla Parade welcomed in the fall season with a great parade featuring the Dayton Antioch Shriners’ and their miniature vehicles, live entertainment, dunk tank, bouncy house and a children’s area full of games and prizes. Food trucks offering a variety of foods, jalapeno eating contest, suck, chew and blow contest, corn hole tournament and a remote radio broadcast from WPKO guaranteed a day full of fun for the entire family. The chili festival committee wishes to thank all those individuals who made this happen!

Corporate sponsorship is essential and we are indebted to our major sponsors and the local businesses and professionals who contribute to the event. This support enables us to offer $2,000 in prize monies for the best chili and additional prize monies for the best booth display and the other contests. We extend a special thanks to these generous businesses and individuals.

To Urbana Mayor Bill Bean, Director of Administration Kerry Brugger, the Urbana Police Division, and Colin Stein and the gentlemen of the street department, we sincerely appreciate your help with signage, closing the streets and rerouting the traffic and your support of the event! To our judges, we appreciate your time taken from your restaurants on such a busy day and to our Master of Ceremonies Taylor Armstrong, congratulations on a job well done! Urbana Daily Citizen did an outstanding job with publicity both before and following the event. Our thanks to Brenda Burns, and Lane Moon and staff for their help and cooperation with the coverage of our event.

Many thanks to the local businesses who donated to our raffle, the food trucks who offered a great selection of food to our guests,the “cookers” who make this event possible, the brave souls who volunteered to be “dunked” and the many crafters and civic groups who participated. A special thank you to the Urbana High School Football team and the Urbana University Men’s Basketball team for their help in maintaining a clean streetscape and making the tear down/clean up easier for all involved. Hats off to the excellent committee who dedicated hundreds of hours to ensure a fun-filled, memorable day in downtown Urbana. They are one awesome group and I look forward to working with them in 2017!

By Beth Adair

Beth Adair is chairman of Simon Kenton Chili Cook off Festival, a Monument Square District event.

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