Monday, September 19, 2005

 

Eat More Chili! [Updated]

Update: Dore' writes:
Chili's is great!!! Please be sure to eat at Chili's on September 26. Chili's is donating 100% of their profits on Sept. 26 nationwide to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. For more info go to:
www.createapepper.com Chili's is in the midst of a national pepper coloring campaign to raise funds for St.Jude.

St. Jude is providing treatment for 80 very sick children who were being treated for cancer and other catastrophic illnesses in hospitals impacted by Katrina.


I was trying to get together with my FDNY buddies John and Chris at Chilis in d'Iberville (pronounced here "dee EYE ber vil" on Saturday night. Chilis had been closing at 5 pm, as the 8 pm curfew required them to get the restaurant cleaned up and their staff home by 8. Now they are 'closing' at 8, with an 11 pm curfew. As you can imagine, given the hours of most relief workers, we weren't getting many dinners out. John and Chris kept making plans with me, but they always ended up working too long. This time we were going to make it--I called ahead to Chilis, we were all set. Except that Chris hurt his bad shoulder, and John was not feeling well.

I was already at Chilis by myself, so I started talking with a bunch of folks wearing Southern Baptist relief T-shirts waiting outside. They were Tennessee Volunteers (natch), and their special jobs are either (1) chain-sawing fallen trees or (2) 'mudding out' houses. When they get tired of one job they switch to the other. Unlike me, this is not their first hurricane relief work. They invited me to join them, making a party of 23.

Chilis managed to find a corner in their crowded restaurant for us, and Danny (photo) served us with alacrity and humor. His own place got minor damage in the storm, but his folks' place had the roof cave in. Danny told us this about Chilis: they brought in trailers for their employees to stay in if they lost their homes; they delivered food to the families of employees; and they paid their employees during the time the restaurant was closed. Chilis is now the destination of choice of Biloxi's disaster relief workers. If you see a Salvation Army Disaster Relief truck heading north on I-110 about 7 pm, you can bet it's heading for Chilis. So I say: Eat more Chili!



Comments:
Chili's is great!!! Please be sure to eat at Chili's on September 26. Chili's is donating 100% of their profits on Sept. 26 nationwide to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. For more info go to:
www.createapepper.com Chili's is in the midst of a national pepper coloring campaign to raise funds for St.Jude.

St. Jude is providing treatment for 80 very sick children who were being treated for cancer and other catastrophic illnesses in hospitals impacted by Katrina.
 
Great story. My parents and sister-in-law volunteer with the Tennessee Baptist relief effort and they are going down in October to work. These people do a super job helping the local victims. They are going to be there for a long, long time. Glad to hear about Chili's - I will go there for dinner tomorrow.
 
Chilis is on my calendar for September 26. Thank you for that story. I check your blog every day for updates. You are doing a great job !
 
If you see the volunteers from Tenessee again, please pass on my best wishes. I think that they deserve a little pat on the back because of the way in which they do this kind of work without thinking of themselves.
 
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