On October 27, Slug Bug BBQ (Mark and Lisa Pepelea) joined forces with the Geneva Senior Center in Geneva, Ohio to have a combined Senior Q/Halloween Party. The Geneva Senior Center already had a Halloween party in the planning stages and suggested that Senior Q be combined with the party since there would be a good attendance for the event. Although the focus of the event was Seniors, there was a small group of challenged adults who were also invited to the event. Happily, they were able to attend. The room was set up and decorated by volunteers for the Senior Center. Thanks must be given to Denny Brown and Judi Pascalone from the Senior Center who worked out the details with the Pepeleas. Special thanks must also be given to Guerilla Banners for the Senior Q banner.
The menu was agreed and consisted of: chopped brisket and pulled pork sandwiches, BBQ beans, cole slaw, pumpkin squares and prize winning apple cake. All the food was home made. Well… we did start with Bush’s Beans, but all the other food was made from scratch. A Witches Brew Punch (ghastly green for the event) was provided by Slug Bug BBQ while the Senior Center provided coffee. 50 lbs each of pork and brisket were cooked, 20 lbs of coleslaw, 4 gallons of beans and 6 large cakes were prepared. Special mention must be given to Lisa who baked all day, all night and until 2 AM. We are just hobbyists and do not have a commercial or catering set up.
It was a dark, rainy and cold night outside but the atmosphere was warm and festive inside. People actually began arriving 45 minutes early. We were hoping for 100 people to attend, but the weather took a toll and some of the guests decided to stay in for the night.
At 5 PM the costume contest was started. It was great to see about 95% of the people in costume. My favorite was the elderly couple who dressed as babies including gigantic diapers.
At 5:45 PM, service started. Each person was offered a sandwich of each, pork and brisket. Suprisingly, almost all the people took both sandwiches. In all, about 75 people were served. Compliments were received on the food with the people picking out their favorites. The clear winners were the desserts with the pumpkin squares edging out the apple cake. Thanks must be given to Pastor Bob Cunningham of the Unionville United Church and Chris Csepegi who helped with set up, serving and clean up. Chris’ wife Nikki also joined in for the clean up. Their help was greatly appreciated and allowed a very tired BBQ team to have an easy time of clean up. Chris and Nikki were in costume and native Mexicans, while Mark dressed as a pig (but without the nose he looked like a bunny) and Lisa was a cow. One of the female residents even grabbed the udders on her costume and tried to “milk” the cow. She said to Lisa “I’m sorry you are having a dry night”. We really got a kick out of that.
Denny called Mark and Lisa to the front and publicly thanked us for our efforts. That was nice, but what was more important was that I got a chance to explain what Senior Q was about. The look on people’s faces when I explained it and the applause after I finished was the best part of the evening for me.
The choir director at our church, Aaron Drews, is part of the Reserve Actor’s Theater and he arranged for some entertainment. The group, consisting of Mike Breeze, Josh Dean, Gabe Argo and Aaron presented “Good Timing” which was a very funny comedy improv act much like Drew Cary’s TV show “Whose Line is it Anyway?”.
After that, the Senior Center had arranged for a band. The biggest hit was when they played “You are my Sunshine”. I think every single person sang along.
Volunteers were paid with containers to take home leftovers. As we were packing up, Denny came back to thank us again and let us know that if we wanted to do this next year, he would love to have us. I always thought that Senior Q was a great idea and I am happy to have been a part of it this year. We are already thinking of next October’s event.
