Chi Beta Epsilon and Bengal Lancers raise over $1,300 with annual Chili Cook-Off
Last Thursday March, 24, Chi Beta Epsilon and the Bengal Lancers hosted the annual Chili Cook-Off to raise money for the San Antonio Rape Crisis Center.
Cathy Terrace, a first year and member of Chi Beta Epsilon, thought the 2016 Chili Cook-Off went well and to related the winners of this year’s competition.
“The Chili Cook-Off this year was a great success. We raised about $1,300, I believe, between T-shirt sales and sale of the actual chili. We had ten or eleven teams competing this year, with Lacrosse winning, Betas coming in second and a three-way tie between Student Involvement, I Chi, and the Lancers.”
Terrace went on to elaborate on the events of the cook-off.
“We were out on the Esplanade for a few hours, and it was a lot of fun. I think we had a great turnout. Every organization there had a lot of support, and we did sell a lot of tickets. We went through about 600 cups of chili, and every team that came brought their own crock pot. Some of the teams set up games next to their tables, so that added to the experience and made it a lot of fun as well. We had several animals come out, several families came out, and it was just generally a lot of fun and a really great environment,” Terrace said.
Terrace shared her favorite parts of the cook-off and why she believes it to be such a great event.
“My favorite part about it was actually trying the vegan chili because I’m a vegetarian so I was really excited to find out that was on the menu. I’m really excited for next year because I hope that next year we have even more attendance and we can get even more clubs involved. For me, it’s just a really fun event, especially for the second semester. [It] just interrupts everything like midterms and whatnot and gives everyone a fun outlet and a much needed break,” Terrace said.
Hannah Garcia, a Beta and event chair for the 2016 Chili Cook-Off, discussed the history of the event.
“We’ve been doing this [for] 40 years. Our alumni chair sent out a newsletter talking about the chili cook off, and the woman who actually started this tradition forty years ago was really excited to see it still alive. She even donated $400 to it as well, so we really are grateful. It’s always been in partnership with the Lancers because they’re our brother fraternity, but in the past all of the money has gone to the food bank. We changed it up this year though because, since we’re starting a new partnership with the Rape Crisis Center, we wanted to educate people about them and raise money for them,” Garcia said.
Garcia continued to share that the judges were all Trinity alum, making the event even more special.
“We had three Trinity [alumni] as judges. We had Meagan Julian, who’s a Chi Beta alum and now works for the San Antonio Spurs and does all their social media and is fantastic. We had James Flowers, a Lancer alumnus who is married to Melissa Flowers and lives in Thomas. And then we had Jeremy Allen, who is in charge of Greek Life and is a Kappa alumnus,” Garcia said.
As a first year, Terrace had high expectations but was not sure what the event would actually look like.
“I didn’t know what to expect going into it, but I think it definitely exceeded my expectations because there were so many of my good friends from other clubs who were there, and there were also a lot of people that were buying T-shirts and supporting our efforts, even if they knew they weren’t going to be able to make the cook off, because they knew it was all for a good cause,” Terrace said. “The involvement and support from the Greek community and the general Trinity community just really made the whole event special.”
