Fall is in the air, and it is time, once again, for the annual Rotary Broadway Bash Chili Cook-off! Come join us for all the “chili-tasting fun” from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday on the bluff across from the Natchez Grand Hotel!

Purchase a chili tasting kit for just $5 to sample all the great chili recipes from local businesses, organizations and friends. If you have one or more favorite chili recipes, you can purchase as many people’s choice ballots for $1 each to cast extra votes to help your favorite or favorites win!

In addition to delicious chili, we will have a children’s area with a blow-up slide, face paintin, and lots of carnival games. Purchase a $5 wristband and watch your children have a blast! Once again, we will raffle a Skeeter Wilson Deer Stand … and last, but not least, we will have a silent auction with many wonderful items donated by local businesses and artists. Most importantly, bring your checkbook to support a fantastic cause — The Natchez Children’s Home. The Children’s Home provides many crucial services for children and their families in this area. Included among the services provided are:

4 Foster families for children

4 Individual, group and family counseling

4 ABCs Pre-school Learning Center

4 International mission trip opportunities to Cuba and Peru

4 Thrift shop

4 Advocacy and education for at-risk children of all ages and their families.

4 Children’s Advocacy Center

One beneficiary of the chili cook-off is the newest Children’s Home service, the Children’s Advocacy Center, a partnership with Adams County Youth Court that fills a gap in services for children in Adams County, surrounding southwest Mississippi counties, and adjacent Louisiana parishes.

It provides a safe, friendly environment in which children who have been victims of crime have a proper setting to tell their story just one time so that all of the agencies involved know the details.

Some other community organizations that the Natchez Rotary Club supports are the Boys & Girls Club, Catholic Charities, Children’s Christmas Tree Fund, Humane Society, Relay for Life, Habitat for Humanity, Stewpot and the Pleasant Acre Day School. Some community development projects are Natchez Literary Festival, Natchez Opera Festival, Natchez Little Theatre, Friends of the Library, Leadership Natchez, Community Alliance and the Chamber of Commerce. Rotary provides scholarships and supports other youth services.

The main objective of Rotary is to identify community needs locally, nationally and overseas, and then leverage our resources to enable solutions.

 

Sarah Smith

Natchez resident and Rotarian