Our 9th Annual Mac & Cheese Bake-off, presented by Full Circle Real Estate, was one for the books! On July 24th, we hosted our annual fundraising event and were overwhelmingly grateful for the generosity of the Chaffee County community. With 250 attendees, 20 bakers, and a whole bunch of mac & cheese consumed, we raised $21,000! This would not have been possible without the generous contributions from our sponsors, the many incredible donations we received from over 50 local businesses to our silent auction, the amount of attendees, and the dedication of our bakers to feed the community.
Individual category winners. Nicco Hernandez (2nd place),
Lisa Martin (1st place), and Jasper Coen (3rd place).
We had competitors in both the individual and restaurant categories. First place in the individual category was newcomer Lisa Martin with her truffle mac & cheese! Second place was awarded to our infamous return baker, Nicco Hernandez with his Hispanic-influenced dish, Elote mac & cheese. Third place was represented by the son of Matthew Coen, Jasper Coen who competed with his awesome Honey Badger Burnt Ends mac & cheese.
Susan Rivale, first-place winner in the restaurant category serving her beer cheese, mac & cheese waffles.
One of the most interesting and creative dishes of the night was brought in by our restaurant winner, Susan Rivale, of Mt. Princeton Hot Springs Resort! Susan competed with her Mac & Cheese Waffle with Beer Cheese Sauce and was an overwhelming crowd favorite for the uniqueness of her dish. We loved and valued every person’s dish that was brought to compete. This event simply would not have been what it was without the presence of our incredible bakers.
Our Title Sponsor, Full Circle Real Estate was represented at the event by owner and board member, Catherine Fisher. All of our incredible board members volunteered their time as well. We are so thankful for all of the many volunteers we had, this event would not have been a success without them! One awesome aspect of our event is our door prizes. We had three door prizes, all donated to us from Milwaukee because of their Habitat for Humanity tool donation program. Of the many entries, there could only be one winner per item.
The Mcloughlin family. From left to right: Caitlin McLoughlin, Brian McLoughlin,
Tara McLoughlin, and Sean McLoughlin
Lastly, this event was a major success with thanks to our summer intern, Tara McLoughlin, and our dedicated staff. The combined hard work and attention to detail made this event run smoothly from start to finish. Tara worked as our Event Coordinator and even had a little surprise at the event with her father surprising her and flying out from Texas to make it to the bake-off! She was encouraged to have her family and even some friends come out for the fun night and they volunteered to help make the night a success.
Keep a lookout for next year because we’re shaking things up for the 10th annual fundraiser event! Get ready to go all out for our Anything Pasta fundraiser!
We are thankful for all the success we have had this year and look forward to all the new and unique fun that next year will bring.
Thank you to all of our generous sponsors of the 2023 Mac & Cheese Bake-Off!
