The Power of the “Q”!

Over the past 30 days, I had the opportunity to spend a little time in Morgan County, Alabama and even less in Joplin, MO helping people who were helping even more people!  It was an incredible and life altering experience and the underlying message that still resonates clearly with me today is that BBQ has power!  Not the power it has to overwhelm your taste buds with flavors, nor the power to draw neighbors from blocks around to your party…it has a very special healing power!

To be sure…at each of these disasters there were LOTS of folks serving food to their communities at no cost as they began the process of rebuilding and it was GREAT to see!  But it appeared to me that folks eating BBQ seemed to have a different sense about them for the few minutes it took to eat their slow smoked meals.  They truly appreciated the ‘difference’ that slow smoked BBQ represented over Pizza, Chili or whatever else was being provided to them.  I am certainly not trying to lift up the efforts of the BBQ community above those of any other food service operators who contributed…it does take a ‘community’ to meet such tremendous need and we are all in this together, but I am slightly biased as a ‘BBQ Guy’!

Anyone who’s ever had our “Q” at an event and all of my friends know that I am a HUGE proponent of the ‘smile factor’ that BBQ adds to any kind of event.  Heck, I’ve even threatened to do a Thesis on it when I finally get around to getting that MBA! 🙂 It is and always has been amazing to me that no matter what the group or where they come from…nearly everyone LOVES BBQ!!!  (Except that girl who made me drive an hour to deliver a tasting tray that I made for her ‘off season’ and then told me that she wasn’t hiring me for her wedding because our food was ‘too smokey’! – Shame on YOU! :)) 

We’ve got something special in the BBQ Community and it’s only getting better!  If you own a BIG smoker, have a BBQ Business or are a BBQ Team…PLEASE visit: http://www.operationbbqrelief.org/ and register your operation to be a part of something that I know will become successful and incredibly beneficial for the BBQ Community and for all of our fellow Americans affected by disasters!  Thanks to everyone for loving the “Q”!!!