Everyone is welcome to the annual Steak Fry Supper and Outdoor BBQ, hosted by the Rimbey Lions Club, and slated to run June 6 at PasKaPoo Park
Tickets are $30 for adults and youth, with kids 10 and under admitted free of charge. Tickets must be purchased in advance, as they will not be available at the gate. They can be purchased at Stationery Stories and Sounds, the Rimbey Review, Ammonite World Storefront, or from any Lions Club member.
Things get underway at 4 p.m.
Folks a cook their own steaks on briquette barbecues. There will also be hot dogs and hamburgers for the kids, plus salads, desserts and refreshments will be served as well.
"This will be our fourth year," said Ted Jamieson, who co-chaired the inaugural event with Laverne Oberhammer.
"It was the Lions' 75th anniversary (from the date) of its charter."
To celebrate the milestone, the club decided to hold a community barbecue as a way to thank the public for their support as well, he said.
"We put it out there at $10 a steak, and that included all of the fixings," he said. "The major thing we wanted to do was to have people be able to visit, because at the time (due to the pandemic), they hadn't been able to see their neighbours," he said.
"So that was the basic start of it. We said this is our party, and we wanted the community to celebrate our 75 years, and to get out there to enjoy the neighbourhood. That's the background to how it all got going. And it went over very well."
Since the very start, the barbecue has continued to be a popular community event, attracting upwards of nearly 500 people.
Jamieson has been part of the Lions for several decades, including the Rimbey Lions Club in particular for the past 25 years. He said that ultimately, the club offers an excellent way not to just give back, but also to connect more closely with one's community.
"It's about getting out there and doing things for the community, and meeting people," he noted. "That's what keeps you coming back. I think we've got about 50 members now, and you see them all over the place," he said, noting it's of utmost importance to keep members active on a number of fronts.
"You have to make sure that they are enjoying it - like you are!"
Oberhammer.also recalled that very first barbecue as being a key opportunity to really give back to the community.
"That's what the Lions are all about," he said. "Any project we have ever funded - 100 per cent of it has gone back (to the community), and has since 1946," he said, adding his own vision for the steak fry was - and is - to emphasize the 'friendship' aspect of it, too.
Looking to next month's event, Oberhammer said he's looking forward, for starters, to the striking sense of camaraderie the event generates.
"It's exciting to see everyone come together, join in, cook, and visit," he added. "It's just phenomenal."
For more information, find the Rimbey Lions Club on Facebook.
