footzoneblog: I LIKE PIE Recap

We don't have every i dotted and t crossed from I LIKE PIE on Thanksgiving morning but close enough to share some of the numbers. Drum roll please................

1600 people registered- This one blew us away. Last year was about 800/900. We knew it would be bigger but more than 700 of you signed up on Wednesday and Thursday alone. Crazy!

5,500 pounds of food for NeighborImpact - That's an impressive amount of food, especially compared to the 3800lbs from last year. Nice work.

$10,000+ for NeighborImpact. As you know, the registration fee for I Like Pie is simply a donation to NeighborImpact. The only expenses for this event are t-shirts, insurance, porta potties, pie serving supplies, and a $500 donation to the Bend High Culinary Program for their help serving pie (we more than cover these expenses with tee-shirt sales). Every other penny goes to NeighborImpact. Last year we raised $5800 so this year was a big improvement. And yes, many people sign up without making a donation but that's OK. Far more do contribute and we've intentionally left it as on option.

Pie- We didn't get an exact pie count this year but 160 signed up to bring pie and Sweet Home AlaMode made and brought a lot of extra pie. If you saw the tables, there was A LOT of pie. Good thing because we ate all of it but 2 pies! Those went to Shepherds House.

Pie Baking Contest- So many unbelievable entrants this year. Thank You all.
The winners were as follows:

Traditional Category. 1st - Alisa Allen (apple), 2nd - Jodie Barram (blueberry -gluten free) 3rd - Louise Wilson (pumpkin).

Open Category- 1st - Kristina Miller (coconut cream), 2nd - Vivian Height (chocolate espresso), 3rd Dana Bennett - (pie pops)

Most Beautiful - Liz Bloom (apple)

Most Creative - Dana Bennett (pie pops)

Many Thanks - To Sweet Home Alamode for taking the reigns of the pie baking contest this year. To Bellatazza, Lone Pine Coffee, Strictly Organic Coffee, Crow's Feet Commons for contributing coffee and atmosphere to this years event. To the Bend High Culinary Program for all the help serving pie. To the entire crew at FootZone for all their work putting this on, especially Melanie, Angela, Colleen, Marybel, Rob, Max, Dave, and Teague. Thanks also to all the volunteers who helped out at t-shirt pick up and on Thanksgiving Day.

Special Thanks to NeighborImpact for doing such vital work in this community.

This run started 7 years ago as a Thanksgiving FootZone fun run with about 50 people and has grown into something far more. We're not looking for it to grow too much more since we still want to enjoy our family and friends on Thanksgiving. That said, we love it and love that the community loves it. If you'd like to help out planning next year or have ideas on how to make it better (without keeping the organizers out there longer on Thanksgiving) please let us know.

Thanks for reading and thanks for liking PIE!