The Town of Loxahatchee Groves will hold a potluck barbecue and town-wide cleanup event on Saturday, July 3.
The event will be based out of Big Dog Ranch Rescue at 14444 Okeechobee Blvd. at D Road. Check-in will be from 8:30 to 9:30 a.m. with lunch beginning around noon.
“People will sign in and sign a waiver and be given a map of the town, and I will assign them different road sections,” said Mayor Robert Shorr, who organized the event along with Vice Mayor Laura Danowski. “They’ll just go pick up what they can. I’ve got a truck and a trailer, and I’ve got another guy with a truck and trailer.’
Volunteers will be given bags to fill and place on the side of the road for pickup.
“We’ll go around and pick up the big stuff,” he said. “They’ll put the bags in the bucket, and I’ll put it in the dumpster.”
People who cannot make it to the cleanup are still welcome to come to the barbecue.
“We’re only going to be cleaning up for a couple of hours,” Shorr said. “We’re going to come back around 11:30 a.m. We want to be eating at about noon. There’ll be a quick judging of the chili, and we’re going to eat chili and hot dogs and hamburgers and cornbread and whatever else the potluck [offers].”
He added that food not brought as potluck was paid for by Danowski and himself, and the council approved the concept.
Entertainment with singer/guitarist Tom Blake will be on from 1 to 3 p.m.
“I got the council to do a chili cookoff,” Shorr said. “Five council members are making chili. I’ve got the PBSO and Palm Beach County Fire-Rescue as the judges. It’s a small-town picnic.”
Adding to the rural flavor will be a watermelon seed spitting contest.
“I actually found watermelons with seeds,” Shorr said. “When I was in the Panhandle, I bought a watermelon, opened it up and it had seeds in it. I bought four of them. I’m going to take these to the party.”
A bounce house will also be set up for children. “Big Dog is letting us use that southwest corner. It has nothing to do with the Big Dog operation,” Shorr said. “There’s no dogs there. It’s in a [vacant] little corner of the property.”
