Boy Scouts get plucky with benefit chicken dinner
Chicken little. Chicken big. Chicken a lot.
Everything is coming up chicken for the 9th Annual Birdville Boy Scout Fall Barbecue from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday at Our Lady of the Most Blessed Sacrament Church, along Broadview Boulevard in Natrona Heights.
A pallet of chicken -- more than a ton of meat -- is soaked in a brine, grilled and smothered in barbecue sauce.
One lucky Boy Scout will don a chicken costume and roam Broadview Boulevard to reel in patrons to partake of the $7 meal of a barbecued half-chicken, coleslaw and roll.
Some 40 Scouts plus 40 troop leaders, parents and other volunteers will fill a duty roster for three days to prepare, grill and serve up 1,000 dinners.
"If we didn't have the manpower, we couldn't pull this off, from the leaders to the Scouts," says Norm Walters, 51, of Tarentum, a committee member with Birdville Troop 186.
The barbecue is the troop's biggest fundraiser that pays operating expenses and discounts for the Scouts to stay at a weeklong summer camp at Heritage Reservation in Farmington.
These are not ordinary chickens, nor is the barbecue the usual fundraiser.
"It was born out of frustration," Walters says.
After years of staging small events to raise money for troop expenses, the Scouts were trying to find other ways to bring in donations in the competitive field of hoagie sales, fish fries and candy bars.
Then, about a decade ago, a nameless benefactor gave them three stainless-steel grills. Given that the troop originated in the Birdville section of Natrona Heights, grilled chicken was the natural choice.
Sales in the initial years were modest, but the troop gained steam with each annual dinner, according to Walters, especially when they rallied for a special barbecue chicken dinner in 2004 to help offset medical expenses of the late John Merli, a former Scoutmaster.
Through the years, the troop's cooking methods have become more sophisticated to accommodate an increased number of chickens and patrons clucking for more.
The process starts with whole chickens Scout leaders cut in half with a meat saw: "The best investment we made," Walters says.
The chicken halves soak in a salt brine and ice for more than 24 hours and are pre-baked the morning of the sale and grilled throughout the day.
The Scouts help prepare the 35 gallons of a secret barbecue sauce that includes 10 quarts of honey from beekeeper Tom Sutara of Fawn.
The boys prepare and pack 1,000 heaping helpings of coleslaw, made fresh cut from Perriello Produce in Tarentum. Then they pack some more: Containers of extra barbecue sauce and fresh rolls from Vibo's Italian bakery in Brackenridge.
"It's amazing the preparation that goes into it," says Eagle Scout Joseph Sadecky, 17, of Freeport.
He's been volunteering for the barbecue for six years and, mercifully, has outgrown the chicken costume.
Sadecky has been busy setting up tents and grills, packing coleslaw and bags, then carrying bags and greeting a steady stream of customers.
"It's hard work, but it's fun and it's worth it," he says.
Additional Information:
9th Annual Birdville Boy Scout Fall Barbecue
When: 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday
Where: Our Lady of the Most Blessed Sacrament Church, along Broadview Boulevard side in Natrona Heights
Cost: $7 for barbecued half-chicken, coleslaw and roll
Details: 724-226-1796 to reserve tickets; walk-in tickets available day of sale.
