Get out the napkins - lots of them. After more than two years, Ribfest has finally turned to Oakville.
The Rotary Club of Oakville Trafalgar began the eighth Oakville Family Ribfest event last night in a drive-through setup to accommodate COVID-19 protocols and promote safety.
The event also runs today, Saturday August 21, and tomorrow, Sunday August 22, 2021 both from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. for all the ribs you can handle. No advance reservations are required - just show up in your car and come out for music, ribs and a great cause.
As a drive-through, drivers enter the Sheridan Trafalgar campus parking lot and receive a gift bag and menu. After deciding which of the four "ribbers" (large food stands) they want to order from, they're directed to a short line to order, pay and receive their food.
The four ribbers featured at this year's event are:
- Crazy Canuck Smokers
- Gator BBQ
- Brickyard BBQ
- Route 55 Barbeque Team
If pork ribs aren't your thing, there's lots of other BBQ treats on the menu: pulled pork, roast chicken, combo plates, and tasty sides like mac and cheese, coleslaw, beans, and corn bread. There are also bonus lemonade, corn and donut stands on site.
Once you receive your picnic food, you can keep it in your car, take it home, or take it for a picnic elsewhere in Town. Because it's a drive-through, it's also easily transportable (and shareable.)
But as with any event in the pandemic, there were new challenges to make this crucial fundraiser happen. Thankfully, co-chairs Ken Coulter and Bent Fink-Jensen were up to the task.
"One challenge was finding the right time to do it," says Fink-Jensen, "because we originally planned it for June, but because of everything that was going on with COVID we decided to defer to later in the summer."
He continues saying now "is the perfect time" for Ribfest because Sheridan was still available to use as grounds (now the drive-through) and the event is perfectly timed to celebrate the end of summer.
"I think people enjoyed just having the experience of being able to do this type of thing again," concludes Fink-Jensen. "It's great everybody is partying in cars and having a good time, but it's gratifying that so many people are willing to come out and and fundraise...I think this is really great that we’ve been able to do that and get some money to help the less fortunate both locally and internationally."
Co-chair Coulter says this year was a challenge to plan, but also a year to innovate. "This year we can accommodate people who can't get out of their vehicles - something we haven't done before," he says. "And our radio station here, 98.7, we're playing music from live bands who've been at Oakville Ribfest in previous years. It's like a real Ribfest in your head!"
Being able to stage this event had a strong personal conviction for both co-chairs. Aside from their bottle drive (which has successfully raised $20,000) the Rotary Club of Oakville Trafalgar hasn't been able to hold any fundraiser events for the last 16 months.
"We’re trying to make up for the year when we weren’t able to fund raise," says Coulter. "We’re very excited to be able to hold our drive-through Ribfest because the more money we collect the more we can give to the very needy charities and not-for-profits that do positive work in Oakville and also internationally."
The annual Ribfest supports several charitable activities organized by the Rotary Club of Oakville Trafalgar both locally and internationally:
- Kerr Street Ministries Food Bank
- Oakville Fare Share Food Bank
- Local high school student bursaries
- Children’s Aid Foundation of Halton
- Sleeping Children around the World
- Haiti Containers for Hope Fund
- and the Stephen Lewis Foundation for Aids
Lastly, it was great to see dozens of volunteers yesterday working to make the event possible. Form handing out bags, directly traffic and answering visitor questions in the hot sun, they did a great job.
More information on the 2021 Oakville Family Ribfest is available online here.