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Tag Archives: Fundraising Events

5th Annual Newton County Christmas for Kids Chili Cookoff

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Happy Sunday! It has been a couple weeks, but it is finally time to report on the 5th Annual Newton County Christmas for Kids Chili Cookoff and Silent Auction. There is always a lot of work that goes in to prepping and planning for this event, but at the same time we have a lot of fun too. Just check out the photo above. We took a few minutes to go for a Train ride and don’t worry, we threw Mark out of the back. We’re fun like that.

This year we had 12 Chili entries and 4 Non Chili entries. Every year the event keeps growing and growing and the competition keeps getting stiffer. That’s a good thing. If you have ever thought about bringing your chili game to the cookoff, you better get to it!

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Safari Hunt 2017

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One of the big events that we look forward to around these parts each year is the Safari Hunt. Rules are simple, sign up, find an animal, win a prize. How much easier could it be? We need a Staples Easy button, right?

Meet your Safari Hunt Animal Hiders: Grady Weston, Drake Weston, Nicole Willoughby, & Dan La Due.

A quick fun story earlier in the day between Dan and Nicole. Dan was getting ready to go dive that morning, but Nicole (that’s me, the blogger) thought he was taking too long so I challenged him. At that point I didn’t have my swimsuit on, just my regular clothes. I bet him that I could get changed, dressed, geared up, and in the water before he could. Let’s just say, I won the bet!

While we were out hiding animals, I left my photographer assistant, Tiffany Hayworth in charge of land pictures. Tiffany, I want to thank you for your help, or our blog post would be pretty bare.

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Memorial Day Weekend 2017

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Wow, Can you believe that Memorial Day Weekend has already come and gone? In fact, we’ve had a second weekend since then! Yowzers! Time needs to slow down a little bit, or a lot bit really! So, we learned what the meaning was behind Memorial Day last week and we definitely want to thank those who have fought so hard for our freedom! Memorial Day weekend also seems to be the kick off to summer. The days get progressively longer (that is until June 20, then we working in to shorter daylight hours….), the weather gets warmer, and so does the water! It’s a perfect time to get SCUBA certified if you aren’t already and if you are, get your behind to that water!!

Okay, okay, so as you know if you’ve been around this group any at all, that there are a lot of shenanigans that happen when you put us all together. I’m going to attempt to recap those moments in this blog post but be warned of 2 things… 1) sometimes things that happen at the lake, stay at the lake. And 2) Because I’m putting 4 days into one post, you’re looking at 45 pictures. Hey I took it down from 168, you’re welcome!

Memorial Day Weekend

Friday

These 3 got together again. They are the next bunch of shenanigan makers!

Sisco & Pete were in heaven. I think Sisco wound up swimming so much she collapsed out of tiredness that night and didn’t move until morning.

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4th Annual Newton County Christmas for Kids Chili Cookoff and Silent Auction + Non Chili Category

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You saw it all over Facebook, you heard about it in person, there were news stories done (KSN & KOAM), blog posts written, and promoting gone wild, but now it has come and gone and we’re going to recap…. The Newton County Christmas for Kids 4th Annual Chili Cookoff and Silent Auction + this year’s newest addition of the Non-Chili Category.

A lot of planning went in to this years events, a lot of great items were donated, time was donated, and we couldn’t be more grateful for all those who helped!

The Chili and Non-Chili items needed to be in place by 4:30.

People slowly started filtering in. We had 7 Chili entries and 8 Non-Chili Entries this year.

Judges were volunteers from the organizations who are involved in the Newton County Christmas for Kids. Judges judged the chili portion of the contest plus there was a people’s choice portion. Entries into the gate were $5 which also got you 5 tickets to be distributed between the Chili and Non-Chili entries. The non-chili portion of the contest was people’s choice only.

Judges were separated off from the rest of the people while the judging took place. They judged based on taste, flavor, looks, smells, and all that counts. Then they were released back to the general population to mingle.

Poor Pete. I include this picture because we have almost an identical picture from 2013 (the first cookoff) of him in this same position.

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Extreme Safari Hunt 2016

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Safari Hunt Day, Safari Hunt Day! Say it like the British are coming… maybe it works, maybe it doesn’t, but either way, this past Saturday was Safari Hunt Day! This is a fun event that we look forward to every year. It happens in June and it is a fundraiser event for the Newton County Rescue and Recovery Team.

We got down to the lake Saturday morning. Deb and Grady had some students to certify and then we started signing participants up for the Safari Hunt.

Doug went and put the dive flags out. This is a major event so we had 3 dive flags out to mark that there were divers below.

If you happened to be around, you probably got the opportunity to talk to Scuba Scott, our SCUBAPRO representative. He was in the area and wanted to come visit with Deb and Grady. Since we were at the lake, he came to visit us at the lake during Safari Hunt Day. Are you getting tired of me saying Safari Hunt?

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Extreme Safari Hunt 2016: Animal Introductions

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Who is ready for this years Safari Hunt, Raise your Hand! Okay put your hand down, if you’re reading this around people, they probably think your nuts… You’re welcome . So this year we thought it would be fun to do animal introductions so you could see in advance who you’re looking for. They are now Facebook official, but they need to be Blog Official so we’re covering that today! Can’t wait for Saturday and Hope to see you there! Plus if you want to check out the 2013, 2014, and 2015 Safari Hunt, click on the dates for those recap posts!! Remember that the 2016 Safari Hunt is this Saturday, June 25, 2016 at Indian Creek Campground. Hope to see you there!

“Spot” the giraffe- Father of two; entrepreneur
“Fuzzy” the dog- “Hot Dog” model and aspiring actress
“Leo” the lion– Antisocial blogger and coffee bar poet
“Frenchie” the French bulldog– Recently located from France following his long lost lover Genevieve
“Stripes” the zebra– Bank teller; single father of 6
“Goldie” the bear– Retired school teacher; spends spare time with her 61 grandchildren & her husband

“Genevieve” the French bulldog- recently reunited with her lover “Frenchie” and they are expecting their first litter in the fall.
“Snoozer” the elephant– Spends his time sleeping and is trying to conquer poor eating habits
“King” the lion– fitness guru/ bodybuilder; married to his high school sweetheart
“Small fry” the dog– Used his insecurity of being the runt of the litter to speak to children in different schools about anti–bullying.
“Ellie” the elephant– Happily married to a professional football player; stay at home mom.
“Dean” the gorilla- “Repeat offender” and on the loose! Watch out!

Memorial Weekend 2016

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Be warned, this is a picture heavy post. We’re going to recap Memorial Weekend in one post. So grab a beverage of your choice, a nice sitting place, and let’s get started!

For some of our group, Memorial Weekend started Thursday night while for others it started Friday night. As Grady has pointed out, we have enough people that camp together and own campers that we’re starting to fill up the campground. Speaking of the campground, I heard rumor that during the off season they’re going to do some revamping. I guess we’ll see come next year, right?

This year the water levels were about right. They weren’t extremely high but they weren’t low either.

Hey it seems like every post we need something kind of like this, right? Sorry Dan Hayworth, do you at least feel the love that you were chosen?

Friday afternoon we took Chris and Anissa‘s boat out for a spin to Lost Bridge Marina for all the kiddos to feed the fish.

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Pancake Feed Fundraiser

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If there’s one thing I’ve mentioned before, it is that we like food. If there’s food, they will come, I’m sure you’ve heard that many times. Well one of our favorite organizations, Newton County Rescue & Recovery had a Pancake Fundraiser over the weekend to raise money for some new equipment.

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3rd Annual Newton County Firefighters Christmas for Kids Chili Cookoff

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The 3rd Annual Newton County Firefighters Christmas for Kids Chili Cookoff is in the record books. And boy did we set some new records. Stick with me on this journey to find out how.

Every year new additions to the Chili Cookoff make it better than the year before. It’s just a learning curve from year to year on what works and what doesn’t. This year brought about a few changes with the addition of the bounce house, the Johnny Train and cash prizes for the Chili winners.

The bounce house was a huge hit with the kids. And the blogger may or may not have tried her fair share of the bounce house at the beginning. Hey how can you blog about it if you don’t know?

Chloe & Cailee Lake enjoying the Bounce House Continue reading→

Chili Cookoff Official Rules & Silent Auction Items

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This last weekend we just had the Underwater Pumpkin Carving (don’t worry, a recap to come shortly!) but the next stop today is the Newton County Christmas for Kids Chili Cookoff. At the Pumpkin Carving people were asking about the rules and items that will be in the silent auction. I would like to now share those with you because even though it is not hosted by Extreme Sports Scuba, enough of us that are involved with ESS are also interested in this fun event!

This year marks the 3rd Annual Chili Cookoff. With each year we learn a little more about what works and what doesn’t and we adjust. The best part is it keeps getting better and better! Now if you’ve never been involved in one of the Chili Cookoff’s, please read about the 1st Chili Cookoff and the 2nd Chili cookoff. I’ll wait.

Some big changes that came about this year is there will be prizes for 1st, 2nd, 3rd and people’s choice as well as trophies. What are those prizes you ask? Well I’m glad you asked….

  • 1st place receives $55
  • 2nd place receives $33
  • 3rd place receives $22
  • and People’s Choice hasn’t been announced just yet…

If that isn’t a reason to come and enter chili, I don’t know what is! By the way, official Rules have been announced so check those out so you’re prepared!

Official Rules

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