Page 43 - NOV2021 Digial Issue

Dana “big papa” Hillis
BBQ From Florida
lighthousepointe@ hotmail.com
We recently cooked an SCA event in Brooksville Florida hosted by Chuck and Kitty Dolan at the Hitching Post Barn. This is the 2nd year I have had the pleasure of cooking at this beautiful venue and we will jump at any chance of coming back. Chuck and Kitty were looking for a venue to host a steak cookoff and had the pleasure of meeting Suzy Batten and her husband J.O. they are the owners of this beautiful farm and this has become a favorite site for all the cook teams.
The main thing about cooking all the competitions we have been involved in the past 16 years is being able to help generate funds to help some fantastic charities. Anything we can do to help kids, raise funds for feeding people that can use a little help, abuse shelters, the list of charities that bbq and steak competi- tions has helped has been
amazing. We helped collect
Chef Boyardee cans of lunch-
ables to pass out to kids that
needed to have something to
eat . All the teams worked hard
to collect cans of food for kids
to take home and nearly 15000
cans were collected one year. I
heard a story that a young kid
took his pack of food home and
gave it to his grandmother so
she could eat good that week-
end.
We have been involved with
feeding kids at the New Begin-
nings school program in Naples and Immokalee for several years and it is one of our highlights of the year to help this fantastic program. We have been involved with the Venice special Olympics programs and there Challenger baseball programs and cooking with the kids has definitely been one of our favorite events.
The event in Brooksville raises funds for a program called Never Say Never which helps kids that have lost limbs and need prot- shetics to try and get back to a normal way of life. A young man by the name of “Big Nick Stilwell” had an accident over 13 years ago and lost both of his lower legs. As I understand it he worked very hard to get back to a normal life and wanted to help others try to do the same. He started a camp called the “Pirate Camp” which allows families to bring their kids and family members to a camp where kids can learn to be normal again. 10 years ago 4 families were able to bring there kids to a camp where they could
learn how to become comfortable with there new prosthetics and get back to a normal way of life. Nick has seen this grow to a group of 45 families this year! I truly enjoyed meeting this young man and watching him he is truly an inspiration to anyone he meets.
The funds we raised this year at the SCA event allowed 3 kids to get running blades. That is amazing to help some kids get back on their feet and we cant wait to see how much help we can give next year. I am proud to be friends with all the SCA cooks and judges and reps. The kindness and generosity of all of these folks will warm your heart. People donated cookers, computers, bottles of bourbon, coolers and all kinds of cool stuff to raffle to generate funds for this great cause. One gentleman won a cooker in the raf- fle and gave it to a young fellow by the name of Hill Hampson.
This was so cool. I spent a small fortune on raffle tickets to try and win a bottle of Horse Sol- dier Bourbon but my sweet friend Sarah Watkins won it. Her and Greg Gave it to Me! I wanted to pay them for it but they wanted me to have it. That meant the world to me.
Go to HitchingPostbarn.com and check out there website. These are some super folks and if you can get involved in any- thing they have going on you will be glad you did. At our SCA events they have an open bar
and probably the best bloody mary I ever had. The Gals that work and help at the barn are called the barn chicks and they are so cool. All the tips that were generated were donated to Never Say Never. Several of the folks that won money in the contests do- nated their winnings back to the foundation. I cant brag enough about this great bunch of people!
Chuck and Kitty are two of the best folks I have ever met and the hard work they put into this event is amazing. I heard there is an event on New Years Eve at the Hitching Post Barn and I recom- mend signing up and bringing in the new year with the Barn Chicks!
Cook everyone some BBQ – or steaks- it makes people happy! See everyone at a contest soon and God Bless you all. Dana”Big Papa” Hillis
NOVEMBER 2021
BarbecueNews.com - 39
NEVER SAY NEVER – BIG PAPAS NEW SLOGAN!