Recently, Brandon ’86 Rotary Club, in partnership with Nogard Insurance Group, Social Buzz Marketing and RBQ Catering, held a teacher appreciation event featuring a free barbeque lunch. Teachers from area Hillsborough County public schools, including Brooker Elementary School, Kingwood Elementary School, Burns Middle School and Bloomingdale High School, were treated to lunch.
According to Laura Evans, social media chair for Brandon ’86 Rotary Club, “We held this event to thank our local teachers for making a difference in our childrens’ lives over the last year throughout the pandemic.”
Johnson added, “This was a community event to let the teachers know that we were thinking about their hard work this year. Proceeds from our generous sponsors went back to the local nonprofits that support our families and children.”
The lunch was prepared by Roger Earnheart of RBQ Catering and featured pulled pork barbeque sandwiches with apple slaw, potato chips and three ounces of handcrafted barbeque sauce.
Earnheart said, “At the commercial kitchen, we smoked 26 pork butts, made 15 gallons of slaw and 10 gallons of BBQ sauce. The morning of the event, we assembled all the meals with about 12 volunteers and the meals were personally delivered to the teachers by the Brandon ’86 Rotary Club Members.”
Earnheart said, “We wanted to recognize our local teachers for all the hard work and dedication that they have had to endure this past year.”
Earnheart added, “We went to social media to secure individual and corporate sponsors and were successful in getting 33 individual and corporate sponsors, enough to provide a free lunch for each of the 455 teachers from our participating schools.”
The remaining funds raised will be distributed to several local nonprofits that support area families and children. These include ECHO, Rotary’s Camp Florida, Family Promise and Everyday Blessings.
Evans said, “Our club has been in the community for over 35 years and we are actively involved in many hands-on projects, such as Rotary’s Camp Florida, All Persons Park and funding many local charities. We are a fun group of business leaders that enjoy supporting our local community. We meet on Friday mornings at 8 a.m. at the Rotary Event Center located at 3007 Kings Ave. in Brandon.”
For more information on Brandon ’86 Rotary Club, please visit http://brandon86rotary.com/. For more information on RBQ Catering, please visit www.rbqcatering.com.
