By Mark Gregory
Editorial Director
@Hear_The_Beard
mark@buglemewspapers.com
What do you get when you take 50-plus men, food and a garage?
One of the biggest fundraisers in Will County.
In its 10th year, the Men Who Cook fundraiser, benefiting the Will County Children’s Advocacy Center, was relocated to Chicagoland Speedway and held in the infield garage that houses the Xfinity Series drivers and their cars on NASCAR weekend.
The venue change was needed to accommodate the growing numbers of attendees and what better place than in a garage for guys to show off their culinary talents and raise money.
“Last year we probably lost a couple hundred people because we didn’t have parking and we hit 1,100 last year, and I jokingly said maybe we can hit 2,000 this year,” said Will County State’s Attorney James W. Glasgow, who established the Will County Children’s Advocacy Center in 1995. “But if we get 1,500, I will be ecstatic.”
The Children’s Advocacy Center is a 501(c)3 charitable organization created to improve the integrity of all investigations into allegations of child sexual abuse, while providing “hope, healing and justice for the children and their families.”
Prior to its opening, children who suffered sexual abuse were required to make multiple statements to numerous parties, including law enforcement, child welfare workers and medical professionals, thereby increasing their trauma and enabling predators to exploit minor differences in their various statements.
“Our center is a little different than other child advocacy centers in that we are only 25percent funded by the county and most other centers are up around 75 percent,” Glasgow said. “So we have to do more fundraising so that is why it is very important that this fundraiser be large and successful.”
Not only did patrons enjoy supporting the cause – so did the men doing the cooking.
While the chefs were from all walks of life, a few police departments in particular went all out, donning costumes and winning the public over not only with their food, but their antics.
“First and foremost, it is a wonderful cause,” said Shorewood Police Detective Paul Hulbert, who was with other Shorewood officers in a luau-themed pulled pork stand complete with Hawaiian shirts and grass skirts. “Our department utilizes their services throughout the year. State’s Attorney Glasgow spearheaded that years ago and we are looking to help them and we are having a great time and people are loving it.
“As a department, we had a lot of support and great sponsors. Cutting Edge Catering, Whittingham Meats, Milano Bread all donated to us, so we had a lot of support and we wanted to put out a great product to help the Children’s Advocacy Center.”
Possibly the highlight of the vendors was the booth headed up by the Channahon Police Department as they went full Ricky Bobby with their Talladega Nights theme.
“We have come out over the past few years and it is always hard to come up with new themes, but when we saw it was going to be at the speedway, what a better way than to break out Talladega Nights,” said Matt Brooks, Detective Sergeant.
“You can’t pick a better cause,” added Deputy Chief Craig Gunty. “We work with the advocacy center and we see what they do on a daily basis and it is amazing to be able to contribute to their cause.”
They were joined in the booth by Detective Andrew McClelland and Bryan Wellner, an attorney at Mahoney, Silverman and Cross Law Firm.
Even the host of the event was roaming the booths and enjoying the event.
“We are honored to showcase this world class facility to the community and to be able to do it for a good cause like Men Who Cook is even more gratifying,” said Scott Paddock, President of Chicagoland Speedway. “We are proud to call Joliet and Will County our home and this is one of the benefits of having a facility like this is we can host great events for a great community cause. Everyone seems to be in a great mood and they are raising a lot of money for a great cause. What a perfect night to drive under the tunnel of this facility and be a part of this.”
And Glasgow has a theory about why the weather cooperated.
“We got good weather because God hates the sexual abuse of children,” he said.