For the first time in three years, Meals on Wheels of Odessa was able to have its signature event as it hosted its Mudbug fundraiser Tuesday night at Barn G at the Ector County Coliseum.
Nearly 500 people were expected to feed on the all-you-can eat shrimp, crawfish and fried catfish.
The event started two decades ago and was the brainchild of Judge Jim Bobo and originally took place at Graham Central Station.
“It’s so much fun,” Montie Garner, who is on the board of directors at Odessa Meals on Wheels and is currently the treasurer for the organization said. “It was started years ago. It’s our only fundraiser of the year. As a board, we’re required to do an annual fundraiser. You think about doing something new but this is fun. It’s a very casual event. So many of the events are dress up and black tie events. This is come as you are. You come here and enjoy it. There’s a DJ, there’ll be raffle tickets and neat items to sell. The last mudbug that we had was in 2019. It was very fun and very successful.”
Because of COVID, the Mudbug fundraiser had to be delayed for a couple of years. This was the first time the event was able to come back since before the pandemic.
“It feels like we’ve almost had to reinvent the wheel a little bit because when you go that long without something, there are a lot of things that change,” Garner said. “We’ve changed a lot of board members. There are some people that are no longer on the board. But it’s been successful. The board has worked wonders joining together and doing an amazing job.”
A lot of work from volunteers go into the event and helping set it up.
“There is so much community effort that goes into this,” Garner said. “There’s a lot of people and a lot of involvement. Of course, you can also imagine the cost of everything. There’s peel and eat shrimp and the catfish is to die. Then there’s the corn and potatoes. There are different people that come in and work on it.”
People from the Ector County Coliseum also help out.
“Those people are phenomenal,” Garner said. “They’ve been amazing. They came in (Monday) to help set up tables. Then there are the board members and each of them have a part in either doing the decorations or invitations. There are so many parts to it. It is truly a community effort and it benefits this community.”
The 20 board members have all been involved in some way. On Monday, Garner said there were about five-10 volunteers helping out and another 5-10 helping set up during the day on Tuesday.
Tuesday night’s event featured close to 50 volunteers including members of the Odessa Jackalopes.
“We had all kinds of volunteers come in,” Garner said. “The Jackalopes will be serving food and that’s exciting. We reached out to them and the community really enjoys helping. We’ve had Permian students come in and help serve.”
Osco services employee Cecil Wood is one of the cooks for the Mudbug Fundraiser and has been for at least 15 years.
“The main thing I love about it is that it helps Meals on Wheels,” Wood said. “It’s the benefit for them. Osco services takes care of the catfish and hush puppies. The main thing is that I get to see my buddies that I don’t get to see all the time but it’s a great benefit for (Executive Director) Margaret Burton and Meals on Wheels.”
Judy Hayes, who is another board member at Odessa Meals on Wheels, commented on how well organized the event is.
“People that have been on the committee and the board have been doing this for years,” Hayes said. “There’s a book that we use as a guide. The people who have been doing this for a long time know what the process is like.”
