Tailgaters,

A very big thank you to everyone who made the trip or supported the Tailgate at the Temple VA campus last Saturday.  I think it is fair to say that we needed every single person who came out – see attached picture -  especially the large contingent from Trinity Anglican in Lago Vista who provided and baked all those potatoes, and then plated and served all the meals.  We ran out of food (who knew the cole slaw would run out first) except for a some potatoes and potato sides and bbq sauce.  I have about 150 individual sized packets of sour cream in my fridge so if anyone has a charitable use for that, let me know and they are yours.  A few comments:

 

  1. The First Cavalry Lone Star Brass was awesome!  This is not your father’s military band.  We are going to see if we can get them out to DeBakey this fall.  I thought they really added a lot to the atmosphere.

 

  1. My idea of plating all the food separately and then handing out the meals really didn’t save any time that I could see.  Plus it removes a lot of the interaction between the veterans and volunteers so I think there is general agreement that we won’t do that again, at least on a large event.

 

  1. Although we were not down by the lake due to the wet ground conditions there, the set up was still really good, especially the large shaded are for plating the food and there was a nice breeze blowing through there.

 

The next event has been taken on by the Band of Brothers from St. Timothy’s Anglican in Spring.  They are cooking for the Gathering of Eagles on July 6th and my guess is that will be 100-150 meals.

 

We also have the Big Tailgate back at DeBakey here in Houston scheduled for October 5th.  Please mark your calendars for that and remember that we are always at DeBakey on the first Saturday in October.  And if the VA will let us, we will be back at the Temple VA campus on the first Saturday in May next year.

 

Thank you all again!

 

Ralph Wissel


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