Roger Dietrich

May 12, 2017 | Volunteer Stories

Tornadoes came thru Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio. This was in the infancy of OBR and at the time I was not part of it. I decided to set up in Moscow, Ohio which was pretty much destroyed by the Tornadoes. Not knowing what I was getting into I fell back on my knowledge of outdoor catering for 300-400 people and the benefits we do for the military. I put out a request for help and ended up turning people away.
A good friend of mine Matt Schneider of Velvet Smoke BBQ joined me and we set up our smokers and my food truck/kitchen in the parking lot of a small church to feed those displaced and the 1st Responders. After this I knew besides the benefits I do that this was what I wanted to do.

Good friends Kevin “Porkchop” Manring in Louisville, Ky. and Steve “Bubba ” Coddington in Michgan are the reason I joined OBR.
One of the first things I did for OBR was moving a Meadowcreeck Smoker across the U.S. Back to Meadowcreek in Pa. Then move a larger one from Meadowcreek in Pa. Back across the U.S. Being a member of BBQ-Brethren I was able to set this up in 1 1/2 days to leap-frog between drivers to get it moved.

I no longer Compete and this past year 2014 I have been setting up on my own at BBQ Competitions throughout Ohio and Indiana a booth for OBR to recruit volunteers and to collect donations. Boy what a year it was…. I learned a lot. When you say Hello and hold up a brochure it is amazing how fast people can run.

There’s so many people out there trying to rip others off. My best way to get them to listen to my speal was to say ” I am not selling Anything and if I am I will put $10.00 in the donation jar. If I am not you put $5.00 or as much as you wish in the jar. Just give me 2 minutes.” within 30 sec. They are hooked. Throughout the year with each competition I set up at I learned. With each Comp. I talked to the Promoter at least 2 months before competition asking for them to donate a site for me and to ask that it be by the teams but also in the foot path of the visitors. At the Cooks Meeting, Judges Meeting and at the Awards the promoters have given me the time to talk to all about OBR.

You would be surprised at how many BBQ’ers have not heard of OBR. During the year I have tried different things to get more people involved with OBR Booth. During one competition two teams were going to do their own side comp with Dino Bones and were wondering what to bet. I suggested that the loser makes a donation to OBR in the others name and turn in is at the OBR Booth where all the teams came to watch. We had table captains, judges the works and a lot of money was donated.

“The Dino Bone Throwdown” was born and this year we have 7 teams signed up for it. At another competition I had 3 very large baskets each worth $260.00 that I raffled off. Donations from the teams and BBQ suppliers made up the baskets. One team even donated a $150.00 wagyu brisket. So this year we are looking at larger things for the competitions.

“The Dino Bone Throwdown” is growing. I am in the process of trying to get some skids of Lump and Charcole so that I can raffle off 1 skid and sell the other skids by the bags at discounted prices. The one thing I wished I had done was to have note book at booth to get contact info for all I talked to so I could follow up. Another thing the week leading up to the comp contact the Newspaper and T.V. In the town. At Madison, Ind. I made frt page about OBR. Pic of me and booth and lg 2 page articule was written. I have contacted the promoters to ask for their contact list of teams so that I can reach out to them to join.

During this past year I was approached to be the Lead for The State of Ohio. I gladly accepted and since then also took Indiana. Now talk about being lost. I drew from my experience setting up at Moscow,Ohio and the benefits what I need to put in place before a disaster happens. I wanted to keep recruiting but at same time set up core groups in each part of both states to be able to tell me situation at time of disaster and also to setup up and start since being handicapped and having so much land to cover it may be a day to get there.

Also I am having the core groups send me info on Tent Rental Comp., Port-a-let, comp., Propane, Large Church or School to set up at, garbage disposal, trucking comp for storage on site and refrigeration, tool rental comp., and other comp. that I can contact to get different things donated at time of disaster. Also this past year I have joined the OhioVOAD and the IndianaVOAD (Volunteer Organizations Active at Disasters). It is made up of all groups going to disasters to be part of it to be more effective and to be connected to the goverment Groups. I have had several groups come up to me and state that at time of disaster they will donate food and money to help OBR at the deployment. One has asked if I would cook for them and they would donate catering costs to OBR. Over the course of the next couple mos. I will be taking courses given by FEMA for disaster teams.

Roger Dietrich

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