Saturday was a day of shining cars, rocking music, tasty barbecue and, more than anything else, sweltering temperatures.
“We’re getting a breeze now,” said Calvin Churchwell, director of the Low Vision Center at the Joplin Association for the Blind. “About an hour ago there wasn’t a breeze to be bought here.”
Temperatures climbed into the triple digits as barbecue aficionados and hot rod owners converged on the Jasper County Youth Fairgrounds for Blind Blues and BBQ, the first-of-its-kind fundraiser for JAB.
“They’ve all had fun,” said Churchwell of the cook-off competitors. “They want to come out again next year, so I think we’ll try and do that. The park out here has been awesome.”
JAB is a not-for-profit, United Way agency that serves blind and sight-impaired people in a 100-mile radius of Joplin. The agency organizes activities and support groups for its clientele, and it also funds the Low Vision Center.
“We bring in children and adults that have significant enough vision issues that they can’t just go through their local optometrist,” said Churchwell.
For someone with these types of vision issues, going to a run-of-the-mill optometrist isn’t an option. In their cases, a single exam can take the better part of an hour and a half, and their needs are so specialized that most optometrists can’t help them.
“It’s a unique service,” said Churchwell. “There are only 27 vision centers like it in the country.”
“To those who are unusually impaired or blind, it’s very important,” said JAB executive director Stephanie Mann. “It’s just been a tremendous help to people in the Four States.”
Barbara Fischer, a volunteer for JAB, says the people who utilize the association’s resources are extremely thankful.
“The people that come, they are unbelievably nice and sweet,” she said. “They are so appreciative of what you do for them, and you would never know what they’re going through.
“After two weeks of volunteering, I told Stephanie (Mann) I felt so selfish, because they made me feel so good after being there.”
According to officials, more than 50 people made it out to get a taste of barbecued ribs from the six competitors vying for the top spot in the cookoff. At the end of the day, the JAB officials gave out first, second and third place awards in both the ribs category and the chicken category.
Chicken
• First place — Chip and Steven Wright.
• Second place — Jon Tupper.
• Third place — Grilla Warfare (Matt Lee, Bill Lee and Bill Rohr).
Ribs
• First place — Davis Diamond Grove BBQ (Sid Davis).
• Second place — Grilla Warfare.
• Third place — Chip and Steven Wright.
CARTHAGE, Mo. —
