Page 14 - Barbecue News DEC 2020 Digital Issue

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Turning 2020 Lemons into 2021 Lemonade
Remember this time last year? December 2019, we were all opening gifts, going to parties and anticipating the brand-new year, 2020. If you were like me, then you were spending your December planning all the events you’d be participating in during 2020.
Were you attending The Shed event or going out west to Seattle? Maybe, you were making plans to hold classes or cook in Australia dur- ing one of the Meatstock events. Then in January, the news reported some man arrived in Seattle from China with the Corona virus. None of us thought anything about it until March. Business as usual, until everything started shutting down. Then, as they say, the rest is history.
But with this, 2020 brought us a few things as well. We’ve all heard the saying, “When life hands you lemons, make some lemonade” and this is exactly what we did in the SCA. Like many sanctioning bodies, there was a struggle to get our feet under us, but once we did, WOW. As this year comes to a close, many sanctioning bodies are still struggling with travel, venues and a number of other obstacles hampering them from moving forward. However, Brett and Ken were able to put their creative minds together to come up with ways to keep the SCA in the forefront of everyone’s mind.
By: SC Angus
As the struggles of 2020 continued to keep everyone in a virtual stand- still, it also bought opportunities for the SCA. One of which is SCA-TV. Although this wasn’t born out of the shutdown, it certainly experi- enced growth as it became more and more vital as a tool to reach our members. There were interviews, lessons (we learned how to make some fancy drinks) and just all-around encouragement. Regular watch- ers knew we were all going to get through this and come out on the other side better than ever.
Another opportunity born out of the virus were the virtual contests. Although taste wouldn’t be a factor, there were some great looking hamburgers and hotdogs turned in. At one point, these were the only contests anyone was doing. Whether you submitted or not, you were keeping up with it and cheering on your favorite. Some of us would even like to see this become an annual thing, just for the fun of it.
One more opportunity from 2020 really tested the lemons to lemonade theory because it involved the World Championship.
When COVID started to affect contests, the big ones were not ex- cluded, including Memphis in May. When their decision was made to move to the first weekend of October, you could hear a national
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BarbecueNews.com - 14
DECEMBER 2020
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