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Mark your calendar for Saturday, Nov. 12! Broadway Street, along the Natchez Bluff, will fill up with competing teams of chili cookers vying for bragging rights from both the Judges’ Choice and the People’s Choice awards.

A prize will also be given for the best decorated booth. Tasting kits are $10 to try all the delicious homemade chili and fixins. We will again have root beer floats and signature bowls by local potter Tom Hughes for sale.

Proceeds from the annual Rotary Club of Natchez Chili Cook-off will benefit the Natchez Children’s Services Children’s Advocacy Center (CAC). The CAC uses a multi-disciplinary approach to investigate abuse by providing recorded forensic interviews of young victims in a child-friendly setting.

A victim advocate is assigned to each child, and family, trauma-focused therapy is offered, necessary resources are accessed, and court preparation and child abuse prevention programs and education are taught to children and adults. The CAC is now helping children in Adams, Claiborne, Franklin, Jefferson, and Wilkinson counties. With recent funding cuts, your support is more important now than ever.

The Rotary Club of Natchez gladly organizes this wonderful event in our quest to fulfill the Rotary motto, “Service above self.” Our 120-member club is one of 35,000 Rotary Clubs worldwide. Rotary International is 1.2 million neighbors, friends, and community leaders who come together to promote peace, fight disease, provide clean water, save mothers and children, support education and grow local economies.

The Natchez Rotary Club has hosted the annual chili cook-off for the last 11 years, raising thousands of dollars to ensure no cost services for the children and families who so desperately need Natchez Children’s Services.

It is not too late to support with a sponsorship. Plan to join in the chili-tasting fun beginning at 11 a.m. on the beautiful Natchez Bluff behind the Natchez Grand Hotel.

For more information, call Natchez Children’s Services at 601-442-6858. Thank you for making this a fun and profitable annual event!

Russ Butts is the Chairman of the 2022 Natchez Rotary Chili Cook-Off.