Chili Cook-Off ablaze in Central Park: Firefighters’ fundraiser for MDA in San Mateo Saturday

While a little competition is all in good fun, the true purpose of the event is to benefit the Muscular Dystrophy Association and send dozens of children with these types of disease to a weeklong summer camp.

“It’s all for a good cause and we’re proud of our firefighters,” said Mayor Joe Goethals, who will help judge this year’s competition. “They put out the fires in our city and the chili cook-off is their chance to set fire to your taste buds.”

The family-friendly event has evolved over the years with 2015 including a classic car show for the first time. This year, a new home brew competition will have attendees taste testing and voting on locally crafted beers, said firefighter Gino Lavezzo.

“Every year we try to add something different, just to change it up a little bit, but keep the same premise. And at the end of the day, we just want to raise money for MDA, have a good time and get the community out,” Lavezzo said.

In this year’s firefighter category, competitors include teams from Menlo Park, Redwood City, Foster City, San Mateo, Belmont and Central County fire departments, as well as paramedics from the county’s response team. In the restaurant division, local proprietors Steelhead Brewery and Kingston Café as well as the Foster City Community Response Team will be serving up their own chili recipes, Lavezzo said.

Nearly 20 to 30 Bay Area home brewers will also be seeking a title and offering tastes of their locally-crafted beers. A classic car show will again be incorporated into the cook-off with San Mateo’s historic refurbished 1921 Seagrave Fire Engine making an appearance as well. Two local bands will be jamming along and former 49er Dennis Brown will emcee Saturday’s event hosted at the Fitzgerald Ball Field at the park at the southern edge of downtown San Mateo.

A $10 entry fee comes with samples from each booth, a large bowl of an attendee’s favorite chili and a water or soda. Drink tickets can be purchased on site allowing visitors to sample and vote on the home brew competition.

Now in its eighth year, the firefighters and the city decided the one-day fundraiser was a more community-oriented and safer alternative to the national fill-the-boot campaign, said firefighter Andy Martinez.

Firefighters have long been supportive of the nonprofit MDA and as in years’ past, are hoping to raise enough money to send children to a weeklong camp in Northern California, Martinez said.

The camp not only provides kids with muscular disease an opportunity to meet others like themselves, it also provides parents with a break and chance to focus on other members of the family, Martinez said.

“It’s pretty special not only for the families, but for the kids to go to the camp and be around other kids that have the same issues; and everything that week is focused around the kids, it’s such a special time and place,” said Martinez, while reflecting on his visit to the camp. “It was such a humbling experience.”

Sara Boring, associate executive director with MDA’s San Francisco Bay Area office, agreed the camp is a unique opportunity for children, many of whom are typically unable to attend sleepovers with friends.

“Our kids usually need about 24-hour care and a lot of these kids don’t get the opportunity to go to other camps. This is really a camp of barrier-free fun for all our children,” Boring said, noting each child has a counselor assigned to them for the week, allowing their families to take a break.

The funds raised from Saturday’s event will go toward the camp and helping local families affected by neuromuscular diseases, Boring said.

MDA’s solid relationship with the firefighting community began more than 50 years ago and chili cook-off organizers encouraged the public to join for a day of live music, good food and an altruistic spirit.

“We work with over 33 different [fire] departments and our relationship stems back to 1954 when the International Association of Fire Fighters vowed and proclaimed to be our partners until we can find a cure for neuromuscular diseases,” Boring said, noting while the fill-the-boot campaign is well known, “the San Mateo Chili Cook-Off is definitely unique to the San Francisco Bay Area.”

The San Mateo Firefighters Associations’ annual Chili Cook-Off runs 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 27, at Central Park in San Mateo. Tickets are $10 and can be purchased at the door.