If you were to sum up this year’s API chili cook-off, it might go something like the theme for this year’s fan favorite chili winner, Secure Energy and RDO.
Peace, love and chili. That’s all ya need, man.
Sean Hammers is GM of Secure Energy, which collaborated with RDO for the 60s-style booth at the annual chili contest that pits 25 oilfield company teams against each other, challenging them to use their imagination and skills to raise as much money for the community as they can.
Hammers said they hadn’t seen that particular theme at the cook-off before. But it’s also, quite simply, three great things together. And how can you go wrong with that?
“We’re going for gold,” Hammers said, gleefully. “We’re going to raise a lot of money for API.”
Indeed, their team did raise the most money during the event itself, at $2,205, earning them the Bakken Bread Winner title, in addition to being the chiligoer’s choice for best chili.
Their recipe was a slightly spicier remake of a chili that Rich Chaffee’s great grandmother, Ruth Imsland, used to make, with 36 different, secret ingredients.
Other winners in the cook-off included Halliburton with a first place for best chili games, and KLS Energy with second place for the same.
The best-decorated booth and the best chili in the opinion of the official judges, meanwhile, went to G-Style this year. Second-place chili went to Oasis Petroleum, followed in order by Howard Supply, Weatherford, CP Energy and Target Lodging.
The Most Interactive Booth award went to Liberty Oilfield Services, which also received the Most Valuable Team award for raising an overall $20,000. That amount included both the event and the runup to it.
Hammers said what makes the chili cook-off a must-do every year for him is the fact that it’s fun, and that all the money goes to worthy causes all year long.
API annually gives all the money raised from its cook-off and its annual golf tournament to scholarships, as well as a wide variety of community efforts. These have ranged from neighborhood watch programs to equipment for the Opportunity Foundation and more.
Among grants API has pledged to make this year is $10,500 to Giving Hearts Day, which will double the organization’s donation. That money is being divided among Dakota Boy’s Ranch, Boy Scouts, Path, American Cancer Society Relay for Life, Salvation Army, Trinity School, Make-A-Wish, Upper Missouri Ministries, and March of Dimes.
Ken Callahan, president of Williston Basin Chapter of API, said the organization’s goal is to reach the $1 million mark this year in total donations to the community since inception.
“We are so lucky to have the best oil and gas and energy-related companies in the Bakken come together for a great cause and to help raise money for the Williston Basin Chapter of API,” he said. “They have exceeded our expectations on decorations, themes, costumes, imagination, and the willingness to raise money for us, and of course the GREAT chili. We are blessed to have these teams as a part of our family.”
Blackout Energy is an industrial equipment provider located in Williston, North Dakota that offers heaters, light towers, coolers, frack stands, and fuel rigs for other businesses. The views and opinions expressed in this article are strictly those of its authors and were not written by Blackout Energy. This article was originally published by Williston Herald.
