The Cultural Arts Council Douglasville/Douglas County hosted its 26th Annual Chili Cook Off on Saturday, October 22rd at O’Neal Plaza in Downtown Douglasville. Chili booths hosted by political candidates, local businesses, non-profits, and area service clubs competed for bragging rights of being the best tasting chili, the spiciest chili and the most sold chili. The best decorated booth was also highly competitive and a costume contest for all ages was held as the crowd happily worked their way through hundreds of gallons of chili.
We had a great crowd milling about on the beautiful O’Neal plaza –and they were delighted to hear that the winners were:
Best Tasting Chili – JC Freedom House (with food by Christ Cutz BBQ)
Spiciest Chili – The Rawls Family
The Chili judging was done by Chef Steve Halliday, Chef Gabe from Gabe’s Downtown and Chef Edwards from West Georgia Technical College.
Best Decorated Booth – Douglasville Public Service Dept.
The booth decorating judging was done by Beverly Tate and Laura Mullins.
Best costume infant – age 5 category was McKenzie Joseph “Zombie Cheerleader”
Best costume 1st grade – 5th grade category was Hendrix Smith “Chicken Kids Meal”
Best costume 6th grade – 12th grade category was Emory Euliano “Sonny Capone”
Best costume adult’s category was Keep Douglasville Beautiful Board & Staff “The Addams Family”
Best costume Dogs & Pets was Benji Cone “Devil”
Monday after the event volunteers dutifully counted all the ticket stubs redeemed for chili and the tickets revealed that Most Sold Chili was the City of Douglasville – City Council & Mayor.
The CAC in partnership with Keep Douglas County Beautiful was proud to present the 4th Annual Scarecrow Contest in correlation with the Annual Chili Cook Off. The community was invited to decorate a scarecrow outside of the CAC and it will remain on display thru October 31st. The Scarecrow Contest offered cash prizes for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place, and bragging rights, of course! People’s Choice will be announced at the end of the month. There is still time to choose your favorite at the CAC. This year’s winners were announced at the Chili Cook Off:
1st Place: Nichols Center, for their “Sunflower Queen”
2nd Place: Douglas County DA, for their “Will Barrow”
3rd Place: Stallings Insurance, for their “Oh No!”
“After this year’s hot summer days, the Chili Cook Off had cool weather, which added a nice touch to the large crowd on the Plaza. We are so happy to have the community come together for such a great event on a beautiful night!” said Emily Lightner, Executive Director. People came to downtown Douglasville to chow down, visit with friends, show off their creative costumes, and dance the night away with the Cha-Cha slide.
The 2022 Chili Cook Off was generously sponsored by Lithia Springs Ford and joined by Awards Systems, Inc. Chapel Hill News & Views, Armstrong Photo Gallery, Phi Pi Zeta Chapter of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, The Grant Chick, Elevate Douglas, Extreme Images, Radio Condrey, Blueprint Group, and My Hometown Realty Group. Thank you to everyone that participated and attended the 26th Annual Chili Cook Off, which helped raise funds for the arts education programs in our community.
The Cultural Arts Council of Douglasville/ Douglas County, located at 8652 Campbellton Street in historic downtown Douglasville, Georgia, is open Mondays through Fridays, 9 am to 5 pm. For directions or more information, visit www.artsdouglas.org or contact the Cultural Arts Council at 770-949-2787.
