Closer to Home: A Chili Cookoff Fundraiser

Warning: Be ready for some shameless event promotion in this post.  Here's our excuse, we're doing it for our daughter (try to argue with that!).

I'd like to introduce the biggest event of the fall, perhaps of your life (I told you it'd be shameless):

Closer to Home: A Chili Cookoff Fundraiser

WHERE:  Rouzerville United Methodist Church (Fellowship Hall)

11977 Old Route 16, Rouzerville PA 17250 (The yellow church directly across from the Rouzerville Ruritan).  Click here for the Google map.  Also, if you don't live close enough to attend-consider moving (Haha, that was a joke.  Sort of ;) ).

WHEN:  Saturday November 16th.  Drop in between 5 and 8 P.M.

WHAT:  Taste up to 20 different chilis competing for the "Golden Ladle," Enjoy traditional, live bluegrass music provided by the Back Creek Valley Boys (more on them later), shop at an adoption store full of "first come-first served" baked goods and handcrafted items (including the final 40 pins from our "Piece by Piece" fundraiser) perfect for holiday gifts, let your kids play around at Kid's corner, and much more...

HOW MUCH:  $10 for everyone 8 and up.  Free for children 7 and under.  Other opportunities to give that evening: Adoption store purchases and cash voting for your favorite chilis.

WHO AND WHY:  Because you love us, of course!  Seriously though, ALL money given that evening (including the chili votes) will go towards our adoption expenses.  When we started this adoption a year ago, our goal was to raise $15,000 to cover expenses.  As of today (thanks to many of you), we need only $5,940 more.  Our hope is that through the gifts given on this evening, we can cover a big chunk of the remaining funds necessary to bring our daughter home from Ethiopia.

CONTACT:  Are you are interested in being an esteemed chili chef for the evening (Yes, we NEED willing cooks with BIG crockpots)?  Do you want to volunteer your time or talents (Are you a crafty crafter?  We need donations of nice handmade items for our store!)?  Please direct any and all volunteering/event questions to either my email at lsrush@aol.com -or- our Facebook event page (which will be updated frequently).

Perhaps you are worried about over-committing yourself, but still want to help.  How about just passing out a few of these fliers (Click here to access) to your family and co-workers?  Then you can show up to our Chili Cookoff with both a clean conscience and a few friends.  You see how easy that is?

As we were discussing names for this event (David shot down my genius idea of "EAThiopia"), I was dumbstruck by a simple discovery.  The word "together" is actually made from 3 smaller words: To. Get. Her.  Which made me (tearfully) think about our daughter and the community that has helped in this journey to bring her home.  I believe that together we will be able to get her here- with our family where she belongs.  When we finally get the call that we can jump on a plane and see her precious face at last, I'm sure we'll be echoing the Back Creek Valley Boys' music below, "Hallelujah, I'm ready to go!"