The annual Rotary Day in the Park takes place Saturday in Iola’s Riverside Park. The day will include two events, the Tom Brigham Memorial BBQ Contest and the Neil Westervelt Memorial Car Show.
The Barbecue Contest is sanctioned by the Kansas City Barbecue Society, with the grand champion and reserve grand champion receiving automatic qualification to the Jack Daniels National Barbecue contest. Judy Brigham from Iola Rotary said cooks will be coming from surrounding states along with Texas and Florida.
In the past the BBQ contest was held in conjunction with the Allen County Fair, but as the fair grew and Rotary’s events grew it was decided to move the Rotary events to the spring, which she said was something a lot of competitors also encouraged them to do.
Cooking teams will be arriving Friday for set-up, and as part of that a local restaurant is providing a taco bar Friday evening prior to the team meeting, and there will be a biscuits and gravy breakfast for the teams, who will be staying in the park overnight, Saturday morning.
There are four categories in the contest, including ribs, brisket, ribs and chicken. The first of the turn ins will take place around noon, with some 40 KCBS sanctioned judges reviewing each entry. The judging is not open to the public, but you’ll be able to watch the teams do their thing during the day, with information about each team posted at their booths.
Once the judging is complete, around 3 PM, there will be an awards ceremony during which in addition to the grand and reserve champion they will award ten placings in each category.
As far as the eating part of barbecue, the Iola Underhogs will take of that as they will be selling pulled pork sandwiches during a Community Feed as part of the day Last year was the first year Rotary and the Underhogs partnered for this, and in addition to serving as a fundraiser for them it gives team members exposure to experienced people and national champions. The Underhogs will also be competing in this contest, as Rotary sets aside a spot for them.
The car show is named in memory of its founder, Neil Westervelt and Rotary has been involved with it for many years, naming it in his honor after Neil’s passing. Brigham said as part of the event they hand out 20 plaques for the best cars along with special prizes for such things as best engine and paint jobs.
If you’ve never been to a car show, Brigham said it’s a very social event. “Every car owner has their lawn chairs out. They all know each other for the most part, they walk over and talk to each other to talk cars all day,” Brigham said, adding they also like to talk to attendees about their cars.
A popular attraction of each year’s show is Neil Westervelt’s 1972 yellow Dodge Dart he owned in high school. At a later stage in life Westervelt located that vehicle, brought it back and restored it,
Following the car show, participants, escorted by Iola Police, will make a tour around Iola including visits to the townhouses for the elderly along with nursing home and senior care facilities, which Brigham said has been very well received by them.
Weather permitting, there will also be entertainment during the day including live music and a dance troupe.
Proceeds from the BBQ contest and car show support various project Iola Rotary is involved with each year, and Brigham said they are especially appreciative of the business support to put on the day in the park, and the support provided by the city of Iola.
The bulk of what they raise is used locally, with a special emphasis on education and youth. As an example, Iola Rotary sponsors the Dolly Parton Imagination Library program for Allen County, which provides age-appropriate books monthly for children birth to age 5 at no cost. It also provides dictionaries to every Allen County 3rd grader,
Another project they do is provide atlases to 5th graders, Brigham said this particular project came about after a group of young professionals from Algeria came to Iola, and in that they found a lot of their members, and the community at large, did not know where Algeria was.
Other projects include sending high school juniors to a youth leadership camp, Thanksgiving baskets four around 50 local families, provided musical instruments for local students, and many others, also supporting Marmaton Valley Schools by providing books for a book vending machine.
