Hundreds Tailgate In Style

ROGERS — Football fans cheered on their team with a downsized carbon footprint and a big impact for a local charity on Oct. 16.

Kettle Brand Potato Chips hosted Tailgate Au Naturale in office space on Ajax Avenue in Rogers. The event benefited the Northwest Arkansas Children’s Shelter, a private, nonprofit organization that provides 24-hour emergency residential care to children who are victims of family violence, neglect and physical and sexual abuse.

The inaugural tailgate party, with a tagline of “Reduce Your Fan Footprint,” drew approximately 350 people and raised more than $47,000 to help children served at the local shelter, said Linda Phillips, the nonprofit agency’s director of development.

Organizers provided offerings for adults and children alike with interactive games and activities and multiple large-screen televisions on which the adults could watch college games, including the Arkansas vs. Auburn matchup.

Prior to the start of the Razorback-Tiger game, country music artist Jack Ingram serenaded the crowd with performances of such hits as “Wherever You Are,” “Measure of a Man” and “Barefoot and Crazy.” The Clorox Company sponsored the concert.

During the festivities, guests perched on white patio chairs around tables g raced with red-andwhite checked tablecloths to dine on grilled Polish sausage, chicken, burgers and veggie burgers accompanied by tomato and cucumber salad, baked beans, Southwest pasta salad, two-potato salad with dill dressings and, of course, Kettle Chips.

Those attending also could enjoy dipping an assortment of goodies in a chocolate fountain and making their own delectable creations at a Razorback candy bar.

Shellie Morrison, president of The Event Group - Catering and Event Planning, said her organization embraced the idea of using local products and thus reducing the event’s environmental impact.The biggest challenge was in supplying large quantities of meat, she said. Food sourcing for the event was through Old Soul Organics and More and Ozark Natural Foods.

Nelson Clawson, national account manager for Kettle Foods, said the company works with organizations in its local communities. Leaders were aware of the Northwest Arkansas Children’s Shelter’s mission and had aided the nonprofi t previously; they now looked for ways to make an even greater contribution, he said.

The Tailgate Au Naturale event melded the company’s interests in sustainability (it runs a growing fleet of vehicles on distilled vegetable oil and has reduced material in its chip bag by 20 percent, saving more than 22,000 trees) with its desire to support the shelter.

Tailgating seemed an appropriate theme, Clawson said, as Kettle Brand is the offcial potato chip of the Razorbacks.

The event carried out the reducing fans’ footprint concept in details large and small - from “waste” receptacles labeled for reuse, recycling and composting to the type of Kingsford charcoal used to cook the food to the brand of beer served.

The beer was from Uinta Brewing Company, which has used total windpowered energy since 2001, according to the company’s website.

The Clorox Company chose to be involved because of its employees’ belief in the cause, said the company’s Chris Lamson. Local workers have donated money to the shelter, collected toys for the children and collected parking money and staft ed a concession stand at a company-sponsored tournament to raise money. Employee Charlotte Berry has stocked and managedan in-off ce “store,” which raises money through the sale of snacks and drinks and organized in-house events to raise money for the shelter, a shelter newsletter notes.

“We’ve kind of followed our employees’ heart,” Lamson said.

Lamson is a member of the shelter’s board of directors. He knows facts about the need for its services well.

The shelter served 471 children in 2009 and had to turn away more than 600 because there was not enough space.

A new shelter providing more beds is under construction, and the fundraiser’s proceeds will help run the new, larger center.

“It makes you heartbroken, all the kids we have to turn away,” Lamson said. “Everyone needs to support the shelter.”