Cotati Heart and Soul by Deborah Taylor-French - March 2018
“BBQ chicken may not be the road to world peace, but it’s a start.” Anthony Bourdain
10th Annual Chicken Barbecue fundraiser, Sunday, April 8th
Don’t be chicken. Fly your coop. Cross the road and head to the Cotati Room at the Ray Miller Community Center, 216 E. School Street. The social fundraiser takes place from noon to 4 p.m. Meal service ends at 3 p.m. Buy tickets in advance $14 to save $3 per ticket. Tickets sold at Cotati Exchange Bank, Professional Framing Services, and at the Cotati Historical Museum. Taste Ed Gilardi’s secret recipe. Come hungry because the meal includes half a BBQ chicken, beans, coleslaw, dinner roll, and a drink. Beer and wine are available for purchase.
Eat at the event, then shake a tail feather or tap your toe to live music. At your bidding enter the silent auction or treat your family to homemade pie and cookies. Or come to admire the classic car show, if you are so driven. Take out available. I heard that locals favor buying whole homemade pies to take home. All proceeds benefit the Cotati Historical Society. Volunteers wanted to help with the following.
• Set up tables, chairs, and the food service line.
• People to donate items for the silent auction.
• Clean-up crew for the end of the day.
Call the Museum Volunteer Coordinator, Bobbie Veronda, to donate auction items or to volunteer. You may reach her at 707-795-4545. An old saying goes, “Money can’t buy happiness but it can buy BBQ chicken, and that’s sort of the same thing.” But as John Lennon said, “Imagine all the chickens in the world crossing roads together, in peace.”
New Display honoring Prue & Lloyd Draper at the Cotati Historical Society Before Valentine’s Day, I caught up with Marie McNaughton, the Cotati Historical Society Newsletter Editor, past president and past secretary. We chatted about their upcoming Chicken Barbecue, April 8th. “Dues are still $10 per year.” Marie said, “We need volunteers for the event and the museum. We need a person to run our social media, too. A young person might enjoy that job; a high school student could earn volunteer hour credit too.” I also learned the society’s current board president is John Allred. Thanks, John, for leading the volunteer board since 2016.
McNaughton introduced me to their newest volunteer, Pamela Wilford. A fourth-generation Cotatian, Wilford grew up grew up on a sheep ranch near Copeland Creek. She attended kindergarten in the same room that the museum now occupies. Right after Cotati’s streets were laid out, Wilford’s great-grandmother got off at the Cotati Railroad Station. Lucky for Wilford, her ancestor chose to stay. Wilford is recently retired from fulltime nursing and can now enjoy the relaxed pace of greeting museum visitors and an answering their questions. The CHS Museum is located at 201 W. Sierra Ave., Cotati, CA 94931 and for further information, please see thecotatihistoricalsociety.org.
Cotatiarod benefiting the Redwood Food Bank on March 3rd
Cotatitarod is a Shopping cart race around Cotati benefiting the Redwood Food Bank. A 5k foot race, pub crawl, food drive, costume contest, and decorated cart parade.
Volunteers and participating racing teams needed. Spread the word, and hang up a flier or poster in a storefront. On Saturday, March 3rd, 2018 in La Plaza Park, Downtown Cotati. Event timetable: 10am Racer check in, noon Racer’s meeting, 1pm Race begins then at 4pm Award ceremony.
Please write to me on your life in Cotati, events, business, volunteering, concerns, etc.
