The Tyrone Community Partnership will be holding the ‘Yuletyme Tyrone’ Soup Tasting Contest at the Citizen’s Social Hall, 120 West 10th Street, on Dec. 5 from 4-6:30 p.m.
There will be festive Christmas door prizes, sampling of the very best soups from local area restaurants, and of course, gearing up for Tyrone’s annual Christmas parade immediately following the contest.
The soup tasting will be served with crackers, fruit cup, cookies and beverages.
The Tyrone Community Partnership, previously the Main Street committee, is a group of community people who have become actively involved within the community, but now have branched out to other areas such as the river projects, park and recreation initiatives, along with the Main Street and the Merchants Association.
The Partnership’s goal is to actively become involved with the entire community as opposed to simply worrying about the section of the community between Logan and Pennsylvania Avenue and 10th Street.
“It’s all a part of the visioning study that was done and the need for growth from that in the sense of getting committees together to do various aspects throughout the community,” said Ray Liddick Jr., creative director at Open Door Visions and one of the organizer’s of the Tyrone Community Partnership.
The Soup Tasting Contest is one of the first events the Partnership is holding for the community. The committee members have sent out some letters and reformatted their organization, and now these are some of the ideas coming from that hard work.
Liddick stated, “Yuletyme Tyrone was a thing we wanted to do for the holidays as well as being something that is community based.”
Judy Duey, chairwoman of the contest committee, has actively pursued the soup tasting event. She is the person who did most of the leg work for it, as far as going out and getting the area restaurants involved. Duey and Mary Ellen Jones, co-chairwoman, were instrumental in getting the restaurants involved for the contest.
“The Tyrone Community Partnership is just fostering the contest for the town, and since it wasn’t done last year I wanted to get involved to get it started again,” Duey said. “I think it’s something that can grow, and we’re working on advertising right now, so we can get some people there.”
Jones stated, “I hope the people in the community will come out and enjoy the evening with the soup tasting and parade. It would be a good time to help raise a little funds for Yuletyme Tyrone and just enjoy our local restaurants with their good soups and the festive time that comes with that.”
The area restaurants that are incorporated in the contest include: JoyBeans, Burley’s, O.I.P., LaScalia’s, The Corner Table, Sinking Valley Country Club, The Bull Pen, and the Frozen Cow.
“We’re looking forward to a good turnout,” said Liddick. “We’re selling tickets either here at Open Door Visions or at other locations. It’s $3 a donation, which basically allows you to go in and sample all the soups that these restaurants have put out.”
As far as the Tyrone Community Partnership, its members are hoping to pour more exposure in the sense of saying that they are here and in the community, and trying to do things to best suit and serve the people as a community partnership.
With Yuletyme Tyrone, the Partnership is trying to raise funds for that, for what that organization does in general. All the proceeds for the event goes to the Yuletyme Tyrone organization.
“I think we put a lot of thought into the contest, and since it’s the same night of the parade, people can go have the soup sampling at Citizen’s and then be around for the parade,” Liddick noted.
He added, “We’ve had plaques made up for the first, second, and third place winners for the Soup Tasting Contest. Once people taste the soups they’ll be able to vote on which soup they liked the best. The people who taste the soups are the judges and there will be a ballot box to place their votes in.”
Another thing the Tyrone Community Partnership is doing is handing out free hot chocolate at the City Hotel Park downtown prior to the parade, so if anyone wants something hot to drink, hot chocolate will be available.
The Partnership more or less is pushing for community awareness in the sense of showing that the committee wants to be involved within the entire Tyrone community.
“I think with the holiday season coming up the community involvement, as with any event, is needed and welcomed,” said Liddick. “The more numbers that we see, the better off we’re going to be both short term and long term. A lot of people put a lot of effort into this thus far, and it would be nice if the community came out and showed their support, especially of the area businesses that donated their time and their soups.”
He added, “In addition to Judy, Mary Ellen, myself and the other members of Tyrone Community Partnership, I urge the public to come out and support what everyone’s done to put this all together.”
Donations and ticket information for the Soup Tasting Contest is available by visiting many of the merchants and restaurants of the area, and logging into tyronepa.com.
