The 2023 Jamestown Chili Cookoff took place on Sunday, February 26, at the Jamestown Town Hall. The long running and beloved event is typically the highest grossing fundraiser for Jamestown Elementary School (JES). The annual fundraiser helps to fund many of the field trips, and other activities that the students at Jamestown Elementary participate in. As a small mountain school with a limited funding base, the fundraisers that are held throughout the year are critical sources of supplemental income for the school, and for the students attending. This year’s event raised over two thousand dollars, which was seen as a positive sign of recovery for the school community.

The event was organized this year by a collection of parents from the JES community. Stephanie Abramovici, one of the organizers, spoke about the effort. “It’s just a collaborative team effort, all the parents coming together,” she said, “we haven’t had this since COVID, so it’s kind of a big deal.” The last event was held in 2019, so the return to the event was anticipated as the parents worked diligently to make this year’s event happen.

Klaus Nowels, one of the parents involved in setting up the event described the work involved. “So today we helped organize, put out all of the bins, brought in all the food, we got the tables set up and ready to go for the crowd tonight.” The town hall was bustling with activity prior to the opening of the chili pots, as the last-minute preparations were completed.

Abramovici described the tension that was felt by the organizers. “I was worried that it had been too long since people had come, and they wouldn’t show up,” she said. “They still showed up.”

Part of the fundraising involves securing donations from local businesses, which are available to bid on in a silent auction held throughout the evening.

“We’re incredibly grateful for every business in Boulder, Longmont, the Boulder area, and in Jamestown. A lot of small business owners reached out to us to give out donations and we’re just incredibly grateful for the tremendous amount of support that we got,” said Abramovici, “We can’t put this on without the support of an entire community, and we’re really feeling that community love right now.”

To their credit, this year’s highly competitive contest was again a successful event, as attendees scrambled over samples of numerous green, red, vegetarian, and meat chiles. Indeed, a veritable “what’s what” of chili interpretations was on display for those fortunate, hungry folks lucky enough to find themselves in attendance.

Official judges for this year’s contest were Rainbow Shultz from the Jamestown Merc, Daniel Asher from Boulder restaurants Ash’Kara and River and Woods, and Philip Taylor from Mad Ag.

Asher spoke about being a judge this year. “It’s an honor to be asked to judge such an awesome event. Rainbow, Phil and I had such a great time exploring the various interpretations of chili, from super traditional to extremely creative.” They were tasked this year with choosing the best chili from a total of sixteen entries, and as usual, it was a tight contest.

When the winners were finally announced, The Merc’s own chef, Marc Hernandez took first place with a rendition of Chili Verde, second place went to Tom Williams for his Chili af Colorado Goodness, and Liz Compos placed third with her Azteca Chili.

“It was some of the best chili we’ve judged, to date’” Schults said, “in my sixteen years (of) judging, it was some of the best. Our judging team… really enjoyed the flavors this year.”

The Merc also scored another win, as Rainbow Schultz took home the People’s Choice for her Smoke ‘em if you Got ‘em.

Schultz appreciated the recognition. “Since my chili was disqualified as a judge, it was a real thrill to win the People’s Choice,” she said, “I made it last minute, so I get help from my friend and Merc handyman, Louis Maurer, who cut a frozen brisket with his (clean) Sawzall.”

After having two of the winning chili’s they celebrated the victory in typical Jamestown fashion, driving around the town, doing a victory lap and playing Queen’s “We are the Champions.”

Asher summed up the underlying theme for many of the residents of Jamestown. “The whole town comes out to eat, to gather and to enjoy each other’s company. The Jamestown chili cook off is one of the many reminders of how blessed we are to be part of such a strong, nourishing and connected mountain community!”