Thank You!

With fantastic fall weather as the backdrop, the 7th Annual West Chester Rotary Chili roared into West Chester on Sunday, October 11 to discover who makes the Best Darn Chili Around!

64 teams settled into their cooking spaces on Gay Street at 8am and began chopping, frying and stirring together all of their ingredients to their 2009 recipes. At 10:30 the chili public started to arrive to check out the culinary magic of the dozens of chefs as they prepared their best pot of chili.

Depending on the team, chili was prepared in batches of 10 gallons up to 30 gallons.

To kickoff the chili festivities, the Chester County Sheriff's Ceremonial Color Guard joined 17-year old singer, Madison Wilcox as she sung beautifully our National Anthem. And with that, Rotarian and Emcee Bill Bunch of William Bunch Auctions officially opened this favorite fall festival.

At noon the chii-loving public were arriving ready and eager to start sampling two-ounce cups of chili from each booth. With an All-You-Can-Eat Chili Wristband on their wrists, the public traveled up and down Gay Street trying chili from restaurants, businesses, non-profit organizations, volunteer organizations and from everyday hometown cooks. Armed with wooden voting nickels, the public dropped these "People's Choice" nickels into the pumpkin buckets of their favorite chili. The 2009 People's Choice WINNER was returning champ, The Students of West Chester University with their Rah, Rah, Rah West Chester U Chili.

At the same time the public is sampling chili on the street, a room full of judges are gathered to taste and judge chili for the five divisions. The 2009 winners are listed under the black Awards tab above.

This is also the place to see the winners of the Best Theme Booth Awards. Teams are encouraged to tie their chili name, booth decorations and outfits together. First Place went to a new 2009 team. Congratulations to The Harbour Insurance Group with their Storm In The Harbor Pirate theme!

Photos will be posted shortly, so check back.

If you would like to give us your feedback, email us here. Jeannie@westchesterchilicookoff.com

If you want to be on our chilifriends email list, please click on link to the left.

Our Rotary Club of West Chester sincerely thanks you for coming to our Chili Cookoff. Proceeds raised benefit the good works of Rotary and local community charities.

To learn more about the Rotary Club of West Chester and how to become a member, please visit our club's website - www.westchesterrotary.us. To find other clubs in the area, go to the district website - Rotary District 7450