Hey everybody,

I just finished up with the Hamburger Luncheon a little while ago, and let me tell ya'...I'm tired. But what a good day it was.

We sold out of the 200 deep-fried Twinkies right at the end, and that line stayed about ten people deep from 11:00 - 2:00.


Ken Scwall from WBIR couldn't believe how good those fried Twinkies were. We'll be on the news tonight around 6:25 on Channel 10. Be sure to tune in. [UPDATE: If you missed it last night, just click here to see us on Schwall's segment!]

I was on my feet for over three hours.

But I love it. This is one of the funnest events that we do every year with all of the community. Look at the people who came. We sold all of these hamburgers and raised all this money for United Way. It just don't get any better than that. With all the fun we've had, I just have to say a special thanks to Julie Talbott, Deb Parker, and Kim Kirkland who helped me out tremendously. I was just the fry boy, but they got them ready, put the powdered sugar on, and served 'em up to folks.

All of the totals aren't in yet with all of the tickets people sold out in the community, but the deep-fried Twinkies alone raised $500 for United Way.

We sold over 1,000 hamburgers in three hours. By noon, we had sold 800 hamburgers with the carry-out and delivery orders. It was amazing.

But it's been a great day, and everybody came in and fellowshipped for a good cause.

One person dropped a hundred dollar check for their $2 Twinkie.

Thanks to everyone for coming out and the 40 volunteers who gave up several hours of their time for this event.

A special thanks to our sponsors who raised a tremendous amount of money for this event: Alcoa, Inc., AT&T, Attorney Craig Garrett, Blount County Government, City of Alcoa, City of Maryville, Johnny's Outboard, Kissel & Whitlock, CPA, ORNL Federal Credit Union, Parks and Rec, and Twin City Dealerships.

And I want to thank companies that provided items for the luncheon: Chik-Fil-A, Coca-Cola, East Tennessee Electropolishing, Heritage Propane, Hope Photography, IJ Company, Pepsi, R Chatfield and Company, Sonic Drive-in, Tarpley Signs, US Foods, Wal-Mart: Alcoa and Maryville. If I'm forgettin' anybody, let me know, and I'll be sure to add them.

A lot of companies donated door prizes, and there were a ton of those.

So many people came together for this thing, and we can't thank you enough.

Well, I'm gonna' go for now. I'm worn out.

Blog you soon,
Dave Bennett