Youth Club brings the heat, raises $22K

If Amanda Johnson had any regrets about no longer hosting Blooming Prairie Youth Club’s annual Ribfest fundraiser, they were gone at 5 a.m. Saturday.

As the day wore on – and the heat and humidity climbed to miserable numbers – any regrets were likely a distant memory, especially as the totals of the club’s revamped fundraiser rolled in.

“Our crowd may have been small, but they were truly mighty,” said Johnson, who is president of the BPYC Board of Directors. “Our grand total for the event, including sponsorships, raffles and auction reached $22,687.”

For 14 years, the nonprofit school-age child care organization used the last weekend in July for Ribfest, its largest fundraising event, with multiple grill teams, judging of ribs and other cuts of meat, running a people’s choice competition, serving a full meal and holding a large silent auction.

Eventually, it was just too much for the limited number of board members and volunteers, who by the very nature of the club, were busy parents with young children.

This year, a modified Ribfest was still held at the Servicemen’s Club, but was hosted by the veterans’ club and the Westfield Razorback Wrestling Program. About 200 people attended.

There were probably about half that many at Saturday’s events for the BPYC, which included a silent auction, a live auction, a raffle and plenty of activities for the kids.

“Our crowd (size) is down,” Johnson said, compared to their Ribfest numbers, “but we’re thankful for all who are here; they’re bidding and supporting us.”

There was bound to be a learning curve during this first year of changes, she agreed.

“We all just kind of winged it, because we didn’t know what we were going to do or see, how many people would come …” Johnson said. “We would probably have a bigger crowd” if the Ribfest tradition continued, “but we would be so miserable.”

As it was, Tony and Colette Lea of the Pizza Cellar and Cue Co., and their staff “have been so great,” and it was a cool spot to bid on the items that were on the auction block.

Johnson said the group’s goal was $10,000 – which the auctions alone brought in.

“The support helps us continue making improvements to our building, purchasing equipment and programming materials, providing meals to our members, and covering daily operational costs of running our nonprofit,” she said.

One of the next projects on the to-do list at the club is replacing trees that had to be removed because of emerald ash borer disease.

In the meantime, membership continues to grow.

“We are exploding at the seams,” Johnson said. “We turned away about 15 families, because the kindergarten classes (at BP Public Schools) are so huge.”

The next fundraiser will be a family-friendly Bingo event on Dec. 12.