Blooming Prairie Youth Club Ribfest hits fundraising goal

Beneath a sweltering sun, the Blooming Prairie Youth Club Ribfest was still able to pull off a successful Ribfest Saturday afternoon in the parking lot of the Blooming Prairie Serviceman’s Club.

Down just a little from last year’s $43,000 event total, the fundraiser was able to hit its fundraising goal of $40,000 with more donations expected to come in throughout the year.

It is hoped that the organization can raise $100,000 total by year’s end, money which goes toward the Blooming Prairie Youth Club operations.

“ Things turned out really well ,” said Blooming Prairie Youth Club Board President Amanda Johnson on Monday. “ Crowd was down a little bit, but we kind of think the heat had something to do with that.”

Winners of the event included:

First Place Ribs: Nobody (Owatonna)

Second Place Ribs: Pig Wrangler (Blooming Prairie)

Third Place Ribs and Best Sauce: Newport BBQ (New Prague)

Mystery Meat-Spam: Stang Good BBQ (Blooming Prairie)

Peoples Choice: All Sauced Up (Blooming Prairie)

Despite the heat and humidity, both those attending and the cooks themselves were happy with the 13th annual Ribfest.

“It worked well,” Johnson said. The tent worked well this year and we had a lot of good feedback this year. The Kansas City barbecue judges said it was one of the toughest backyard cooking competitions they’ve seen in a long time.”

Looking forward, Johnson said they are looking at possibly building off a change to this year’s event that added a pulled-pork sandwich with sides to supplement the ribs that were being tasted by attendees.

This is different from years past where only ribs were included which resulted in the ribs running out.

“I would really like to see us find a happy medium,” Johnson said, adding that the event would like to find a way for the cooks to interact with the people more.

Also announced this year is a new fundraiser to help the Blooming Prairie Youth Club add a 600-foot fence around its facilities.

“We installed the brand new playground and we want to protect our investment, but we also really need some safety for our kids,” Johnson said. “We have 60 kids. A fence keeps them contained and safe and our investments safe and clean.”

The total cost of the fence is around $16,000 and the fundraiser includes selling a foot of fencing for $25. Johnson said there has already been a good response at the auction portion of Saturday’s event.

More information on that will be posted on the Blooming Prairie Youth Club Facebook page in the coming days.

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