By Seth DuChene
Editor
Big eaters with a competitive streak might want to mark Sept. 30 on their calendars.
That’s when Gino’s Pizza in Napanee will be hosting the first-ever Harvest Games, in conjunction with the Scarecrow Festival downtown on the same day. All proceeds from the event will go to support the Napanee Salvation Army. “We’re partnering with the Scarecrow Festival to host it there so that we can involve the community and help improve the event. Hopefully we can draw some people for them,” said Gino’s Don Parkinson.
According to Parkinson, the idea to hold an eating competition stemmed from seeing similar events in Kingston. “We’re taking some bits and pieces from other things and putting them together to come up with the Harvest Games,” he said. “We’re going to start small so that we can get our feet under us and make sure we can get the bugs worked out.”
The competition has room for six teams of six; Gino’s has already entered its own team, the ‘Gino’s Bottomless Pit Crew’. Parkinson says he’d like to see five more teams representing local businesses and groups step and take the challenge.
Within the Harvest Games, there will be six different competitions: the Gino’s Giant Munchathon (pizza), Pound that Pasta (spaghetti), Winging It (hot wings), Poutine Mountain (poutine), Milk Mania (milk) and the ‘Cow Patty Muck Luck Chuck’ Rubber Boot Challenge. Parkinson says he’s keeping the details of that last competition under wraps until the day of the event, although he did assure that it will not involve actual cow patties.
He said that portions would be weighed before and after the specific competitions, and the winner of each competition will be determined by the percentage of weight difference. Each event will have a 15-minute time limit.
“(The individual events) are going to be timed throughout the day to coincide with events at the Scarecrow Festival, which will also give us time to clean up from the last one and set up for the next one,” he said.
The entry fee for each team will be $150.
For more information, you can contact Parkinson at the store or e-mail ginosnapanee@gmail.com.