PHOTO OF THE DAY: AND THE WINNERS ARE …

Chad Soulek stands with the team from Avon after announcing the winners of the 2024 Freeman Volunteer Fire Department Rib Cook-Off Saturday evening, Aug. 10. The trio from Avon — Robin Myer, Jarod Myer and Keith Sassman — are all members of the volunteer fire department there and won the rib competition by six points, a healthy distance from the rest of the field.

“It means the world,” said Jarod Myer, who has been cooking barbecue for years and a year ago opened O’Daddy BBQ in Avon, which caters on-site ribs. “I’m at a loss for words.”

Saturday’s cook-off — the 11th — was the biggest yet with 31 departments represented and hundreds filling the Freeman Swimming Pool Park throughout the afternoon and evening hours of what was a picture-perfect late-summer day.

Read more about the big fundraiser — and just how much that win meant to the team from Avon — in the Aug. 15 edition of The Courier.