Tailgaters, 

We had a great time out at Veterans Village on Super Bowl Sunday.  We served 300 chicken wings, 100 large grilled ribeyes, a dozen grilled chicken thighs, over 100 baked potatoes, Goya Cowboy Beans and all sorts of desserts (that chocolate mouse cake looked outrageous but was all gone by the time I cruised by the dessert table).  We had lots of volunteers and good weather - it was maybe even a little bit warm by the time we were leaving.  We will take that over what we had a couple of weeks ago for sure.  Here are some of the details:

 

1.  None of this would be possible without our great sponsors and supporters.  Special thanks to:

- The Back Yard Grill for selling us chicken wings at cost

- Food Town for selling us Choice Angus ribeyes and chicken thighs at cost

- Goya Foods who donated all of the beans, 5 cases of cookies, oil and seasonings (and some aprons)

- The Society of American Military Engineers (SAME) who donated and served all of the desserts

- Black and Veatch (by way of SAME) for donating all of the potato toppings

- US Vets for suppling all of the drinks

2.  We have great volunteers who showed up in force.  I didn't do a head count but we must have had more than 30 volunteers work this tailgate. I don't want to try to list everyone in this email because I know I will leave some people out - you know who you are.  I will send a group photo of the volunteers by separate email shortly.

3.  I'm going to call it 112 meals served - there were no steaks or chicken thighs left (or chicken wings) other than what they were holding for residents unable to be there at 1:00.  We spent $1,520 for supplies like charcoal, clamshells, picnic packs, aluminum pans, etc. and for the purchased food.  That is about $13.60 per meal which is more than we usually spend but where else could you get some chicken wings, a 12 ounce grilled ribeye, a large baked potato with all the toppings, beans, dessert and a drink for $13.60?  And no tip required.  About two thirds of the cost was in the steaks - even at cost, beef is expensive.  Those were some beautiful thick cuts of meat.

4.  We have a few events scheduled or tentatively scheduled as follows:

- Saturday March 7th - Salute to Veterans at the Jamaica Beach RV Park on Galveston Island.  Hamburger and hot dogs for about 200.  This is set.

- Saturday June 6th - This is tentative.  Stephanie asked me if TGWAH might cook for the residents at Veterans village and some VA facilities on their annual fishing trip to Surfside.  This would be hamburger and hot dog lunch service (and water melon I think is mandatory) for about 60 or more.  Did you know on the first Saturday in June of every year you can fish in Texas public waters without a fishing license?

- Saturday October 11th - If we have enough volunteers willing to make the trip, and enough funding, we will be making the road trip to the Temple VA campus for their Big Tailgate.  This has become our biggest event and I hope we can keep it rolling.  I think we have been up there six times and that tailgate just keeps getting bigger and bigger.

So let me hear from you if you are willing and able to make any of these events, especially you cooking teams.

Thank you for all you do to honor our military and veterans.  I will send a separate email in a minute with a group photo of the volunteers from last Sunday.

Ralph Wissel