Keeping it alive: Barbecue contest garners new sponsors

The Real.Texas.Festival. is all about celebrating all things Texas. One of the components of the festival is the Taste of Mesquite Barbecue Contest.

"The contest goes along with the Texas theme of the festival. We really want to present all things Texas, and there aren't too many things more Texan than barbecue," said Daren Watkins, festival coordinator. "In the past the contest has brought us some added attendance. There are usually between 35 and 50 cookers in the contest and they have folks that travel with them to check out the festival."

The contest was being hosted by the Mesquite Service League, which recently disbanded. The city had discussed discontinuing the contest due to a lack of volunteers to run it until the Mesquite Citizens Police Academy Alumni Association and the Mesquite Fire Corps joined forces to take over the duties of running the competition.

"We were asked to do this by the mayor and several members of the city council," said Barbara Dunn, president of the MCPAAA. "We are always willing to work with citizens and help out any way we can."

"We figured what better way to do it than with the police association and the fire corps," said Tony Durant, representing the Mesquite Fire Corps. "The main purpose of the fire corps is to offer rehab to fire and police. We are always at major city events anyway, so it was a lot easier for us to sponsor the contest."

The city depends heavily on its volunteers for its daily operations, and the festival is no exception. Last year the city received more than 54,000 volunteer hours, which saved the city an estimated $1.2 million.

"The festival generally has 300 to 350 volunteers that work a minimum two-hour shift. We have a lot of volunteers that work more than the minimum with several working double shifts and multiple days," Watkins said.

He added that last year volunteers worked 1,300 hours during the two-day festival, saving the city an estimated $9,425.

The contest allows contestants to compete to win their share of the $2,000 in prize money and earn points within the Lone Star Barbecue Society rankings. The top three in each category receive a trophy and a cash prize, with one grand champion receiving the largest trophy and largest prize.

"We are locked into the Lone Star Barbecue Society way of doing things and most of the cooks come in already used to it and know what to expect," Watkins said.

"We will make it better this year because we are involved in it," Dunn said.

Both groups plan to use the sponsorship of the barbecue contest to reach out to citizens about what they do and to grow their membership.

"Every time we are at an event, people ask us what we do and it garners us a lot of interest. We hope to spread the word about what we do and show others that they can help if they want to," Dunn said.

"There is an opportunity for recruitment at the festival. We typically have people come up to us at events and want an application sent to them," Durant said.

For information on the barbecue contest, visit the festival website at www.realtexasfestival.com or email the contest coordinators at BBQ@realtexasfestival.com.

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