KCBS BBQ Championship and Family Festival

Que'n For Kids

May 8 - 9, 2009

Costa Mesa, California

This is the second time we have attended this BBQ contest. Kelleigh Strobel did an exceptional job of providing for the BBQ contestants. The non-profit organization called Kristie’s Foundation, formerly Wishland, has programs that help families with a critically ill child, with all their special needs. They provide a Family Support program for Southern California families and a Wish Assist Program for families traveling to the Southern California area on their child’s wish trip. And due to an urgent need, they are expanding and raising money to build Kristie’s Place, the first children’s end-of-life care facility in Southern California. 

They had a great representation of BBQ'ers with 33 teams participated in the event. This would be an easy contest after competing at Stagecoach with three contests in two days. The team this trip consisted of Steve, Ted, Ardith, Toni, and Ron. The weather was great with some overcast in the morning and pleasant in the afternoon. It was held at the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa. The traffic was busy getting down to the fairgrounds, but was manageable. There was a people’s choice in the afternoon; this is where Ron shines as a great “people’s choice” worker.  There were a lot of people coming and going making the event a real success. It’s nice when you can have a BBQ contest and combine it with a worthy cause such as this charity event.

We finished 5^th overall getting 10^th in chicken, 8^th in ribs, 11^th in pork, and 7^th in brisket. Special thanks to Kelleigh for all her great organization and keeping things moving throughout the day. Also, a big “Thanks” to Kelly and Kathleen MacIntosh for being the KCBS representatives.