Newport Beach elected officials chow down on mac and cheese to raise awareness for Make-A-Wish
It was when the trays with 10 heaping bowls of mac and cheese each hit the table that Newport Beach Mayor Noah Blom and Mayor Pro Tem Will O’Neill realized they had made a mistake. But the pressure was on, and the stopwatch counting down the seconds had already started: three minutes on the clock.
Two minutes, 59 seconds.
Two minutes, 58 seconds.
Onlookers cheered on the pair of elected officials early Friday morning as they chowed down in an effort to help raise awareness on National Mac and Cheese Day for Make-A-Wish Orange County and the Inland Empire.
Some laughed as Blom and O’Neill swapped their initial spoons for bigger options. Their families could be heard cheering them on toward cheese-flavored victory.
One bystander joked, while filming the action on a smartphone, that Blom was eating as though he were at a dinner party when the mayor fell behind the mayor pro tem.
When time was called O’Neill had polished off two bowls, while Blom had only just finished one, making O’Neill the victor of the first-of-its-kind contest at Cappy’s Cafe, which donates $1 of every kid’s meal purchased year-round to the organization.
The competition Friday was organized by the local chapter and Cappy’s owners Tim and Sheryl Campbell.
“We’ve been partners with Make-A-Wish for over four years now,” Tim Campbell said. “When my wife and I bought Cappy’s five years ago, we wanted a local charity that we could sponsor, and a friend of ours was on the board for the Make-A-Wish Foundation, and we thought that was a great opportunity where we could provide money on a monthly basis. We donate for every kid’s meal, so it’s kids giving back to kids, which we thought was an awesome idea.”
On average, Campbell said the restaurant donates about $4,000 to $5,000 annually generated by sales of items on their children’s menu. One of those options is mac and cheese.
“A partnership with the community really brings awareness to that community about the power of a wish and how important it is to have a wish granted as part of the treatment plan to help all of the kids, and their families, really rally around to say, ‘We can do this,’ because a wish truly provides inspiration and hope,” said Gloria Jetter Crockett, chief executive and president of Make-A-Wish Orange County and the Inland Empire. “With our partnership with Cappy’s, everybody can see it.
“They’re like, ‘Wow, such a local icon of a restaurant, and what they do with their kid’s menu and just being able to tell that story, it really helps us, and we’ve got 562 wishes that are waiting, and we need help granting those wishes. What’s important is that it takes one person at a time, and this kind of event will allow that to happen.”
Crockett said planning for Friday’s dueling chow-down with the Newport city officials was “organic,” in that the organization wanted to do something for Cappy’s through social media. That was when she thought that maybe there was a national day involving food that they could rally around. So, her staff collected a list, submitted it to Cappy’s and ultimately decided on mac and cheese as the main item before involving Blom and O’Neill to help increase awareness of the organization.
Make-A-Wish alumnus Zach Mauldin, who was timing the event and is in remission from thyroid cancer, said he felt it was great to get the community involved and bring greater awareness to the organization and to Cappy’s.
“You may not think, ‘Oh, $1 is not much,’ but over time, it adds up,” Maudlin said. “I think a wish for my family and other families is just a light at the end of the tunnel. Whether it’s in the middle of the treatment or at the end of the treatment like mine, I think it’s really important for the kid and the family itself. It brings up the morale of the family and it’s a really crucial part of the treatment process because I remember waiting for the day of my Make-A-Wish. There was so much excitement and joy that it really takes your mind off of the treatment.”
Blom said the organization and restaurant reached out to him a few months ago. He said O’Neill’s wife, Jenny, was a big supporter of Make-A-Wish and that she’d convinced him to participate. In turn, he got Blom on board.
“Not that I don’t want to support the beauty of Make-A-Wish, but eating contests have never necessarily been my forte. It was an amazing program and we’re always happy to do anything that brings the community together and really raise awareness about things that are really important,” Blom said. “So, what better way to spend a Friday than shoving some mac and cheese down your throat? It’s also good to be at Cappy’s; it’s such a staple, a classic, and [I’m] always just happy to be supportive.”
His only regret, Blom said, was that he was supposed to have eaten before he showed up to better gird his stomach. He said he realized he wasn’t much of a power eater and that this was likely his last eating competition, but he had fun.
O’Neill said he got advice from people on how competitive eater Joey Chestnut prepares for the Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest.
“I did absolutely none of that because it sounded gross, but I drank a lot of water yesterday and I didn’t eat breakfast this morning, so that was my preparation,” O’Neill said. “Make-A-Wish Orange County is a phenomenal organization that does really great work here in Newport and all over Orange County. When they reached out and ... Cappy’s, which is a local institution here in Newport Beach was asking, that’s an easy partnership to get behind.”
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