A beautiful day for the Crawfish Festival
New Pavilion is at right.

We began, in the early part of the year, preparing for our 3rd Annual Crawfish Festival and Cook-off. The previous six weekends prior had been looking pretty gloomy, but two weeks out, we looked at the weather forecast and saw we were going to have a beautiful weekend for our Festival, and that is exactly how it turned out. The vision that a few of the Directors had several years back, has grown into a huge success story for the Chamber. Once we established the event, ideas were put into motion of an event that POC needed in attracting tourism.

No one really knows exactly how old the pavilion at King Fisher Park was –some say it was built in the mid 1960’s. This would mean the original structure was 50 some odd years old. I think we can all agree that it had served its purpose. The team of Chamber Directors decided to set a goal for a new pavilion. Within two years we raised enough money to put the wheels in motion and begin making this goal a reality. We then were approached by a very generous couple that wanted to help us make our vision happen, Larry & Sharilyn Carroll. A HUGE Thank you for being instrumental in moving this project along, goes out to not only the Carroll’s’, but also, Gary Cunningham with Tidelands, Bennie Ramirez of Ramirez Concrete Construction and GP Construction for helping us get this pavilion off the ground and in the air. It was a perfect setting for Crawfish Fest 2015. I may have walked many miles that day, but it was under shade most of the time! A great time was had by all. We had a total of 14 Crawfish Cook teams compete in the cook-off division, 11 in the side dish division and 10 in the Bloody Mary contest. We also had the crawfish eating contest that was entered by 20 contestants along with 27 craft vendors and 5 additional food vendors that serving BBQ, hamburgers, funnel cakes, blooming onions, fried Oreos, snow cones, crepes and much more. We had some great entertainment throughout the day. Boudreaux, of Rockport, started the event with his Cajun and zydeco music, next Andrea Marie and the Magnolia Band took the stage and we ended the day with some blues and old rock by the Mudcatz. AND we should not forget to mention that we sold a tad bit over 2000 lbs of mudbugs. Some asked ‘what are the funds from this event going to be used towards?’ and to answer that question, we still have electricity to put at the pavilion and basketball goals for the kids to play some basketball soon. It is our wish for all to enjoy this new pavilion and to take pride in King Fisher Park. If you happen to see vandalism or destruction happening, please do not hesitate to contact law enforcement.

I cannot THANK my team of directors, current and past, for all the support I have had during my term as Chamber President. Also, THANK YOU, to our Commissioners and Judge for all their support of the new pavilion and efforts in the destruction of the old pavilion, along with all the County workers that worked in such a professional manner with us throughout this entire project. This project shows that together we can make it happen. Please continue to support your Chamber of Commerce, especially the businesses in POC, as we continue to try and work to bring commerce to help your business prosper.

Thanks to all,
Mary Jo Walker, POC Chamber of Commerce President

A list of Sponsors and Volunteers is printed in the May 15 (print) issue of Dolphin Talk.

2,000 pounds of Crawfish
consumed at the
the 2015 Crawfish Festival