GAINESVILLE - This 4th of July rain postponed a lot of events across Northeast Georgia, but not the 20th Annual Public Service and Community Barbeque at Memorial Park Funeral Home in Gainesville. The weather did not stop it, but changed it a bit. The huge tents full of public servants, law officers, their families, and the general public were not there. Vice President of Operations Billy Hendrix said it became a serve and take out event with people pulling in with their cars for the free barbeque and hotdogs with all the trimmings. Hendrix said Memorial Park had 700 pounds of barbeque, 800 pounds of chicken, and 1,200 pounds of hotdogs, 75 gallons of beans, and 75 gallons of cold slaw on hand and the staff expected to feed around 2,000 people before the food ran out. “We canceled all the outdoor events and we moved our food preparation inside,” Hendrix said. “It’s for our public servants; this is how it all started. It started out as a covered dish dinner for them and it sort of escalated into a community event and a family affair.” Memorial Park General Manager Marion Merck, who is also Hall County’s coroner, remembers when the barbeque began. “We’ve been in business here 23 years and we started this three years after we opened up here,” Merck said. “Every year it seems to get bigger. The weather today kept us from doing what we wanted to do but we’re having a great turnout.” Merck said Memorial Park would not let the weather stop the barbeque that’s become a tradition. “We wanted to keep the tradition,” he added. “We’ve always wanted to honor our law enforcement officers and the people with the Fire Department and the others and we didn’t want to break it, we wanted to keep on regardless of rain.”
Posted on: Thu, 04 Jul 2013 20:46:50 +0000
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