Hosting the Neighborhood Cook Out

If you have a spacious front yard within a residential district, it is possible for you to host a neighborhood cook out contest. The advantage of holding it outdoors will generate interest and popularity not just for you but for the underlying principles embodied in the contest. Most contests with such attributes are utilized by charity organizations to generate funds and fun. It is also the most popular among housewives who are domestically trained.

How can you best prepare to host such event on your front yard? First in the list is to generate as much interest as possible. Use e-mail, leaflets, word-of-mouth, phone calls and printed announcements posted on common areas like the church, school, convenience stores and residential gates to get as much coverage as you possibly can.

Secure the help of some close neighbors. Ask them to meet up and brain storm for ideas on prizes and awards. Map the criteria for the cook out to come up with the best dish. Use definitive characteristics such as unique, innovative, nutritious, easy to prepare, environment-friendly, kitchen-friendly and many more.

Plan your backyard decorations. Include pastel color balloons of different colors of summer to match your backyard plants and flowers and to achieve a festive mood. Be generous with awards and recognition if feasible as this will generate a more friendly atmosphere among neighbors. Awards can simply come in the form of an embroidered apron, a handkerchief headband or the very humorous yet unique plaque or trophy - a big wooden spoon with a pink ribbon or the likes. The wooden spoon can also be printed with the name of the contest and the category of the award. Such award can be used as wall decors and will serve as memoir of a fun and festive day.

If there are many contestants, ask them to bring their own portable outdoor fire pit. In order to avoid clutter, use some contestant guidelines like improvising ways of cooking on a fire pit without using a pan or cooking pot. If feasible, invite reputable people in relation to the contest's theme. Otherwise, school officials and church organization officers can serve as judges.

Invite other neighbors as spectators that will serve as customers later after the cook fest. If funds will be used for a certain project, make sure that you issue some sort of control number for auditing purposes. Make sure that you announce this prior to starting the contest so as to avoid confusion and suspicion. In addition, make sure that whatever the purpose of the cook out and the activities thereof, are implicitly detailed in home owner's organization meetings. Provide a means to announce how much fund has been generated prior to officially closing the event for transparency and auditing purposes.

These event will be likely to get a second round. Make sure that a couple of your neighbors have been with you all throughout the planning and implementation phase of such projects. This is to ensure that you will not be the only one who will get to plan to host such event - because sometimes, it is also enjoyable to be the audience.