For more than 20 years, W&A Engineering and Donald W. Hansford Law have partnered to host their Annual BBQ as a way to give thanks to their clients and community partners. With over 600 community members in attendance in 2019, planning for the event in 2020 proved to be a challenge due to COVID-19 gathering restrictions. The team decided to keep the tradition going, but with a twist, and in the spirit of giving they donated the BBQ directly to nonprofit organizations in our community who are helping those who need it most. This year, the W&A and Donald W. Handford Law team decided to do the same this year with the hopes of returning to an in-person celebration in 2022.
Last week, a number of W&A and Donald W. Hansford Law colleagues gathered at Harris Shoals Park early Friday morning to prepare, package, and distribute a total of 400 pounds of barbeque for five local nonprofits, 185 families, and 300 members of Athens-Clarke County’s homeless population. It was a wonderful opportunity for us to come together and share some laughs while rising above global pandemic challenges to do what we do best– invest in our communities with our hard work and dedication.
Amy Kissane, our Coordinator for Corporate Citizenship, has been working with The Athens Area Homeless Shelter, Athens Churches Together Serving, Athens Alliance Coalition, Salvation Army, and Athens Community Council on Aging as a way to thank them for the incredible work they do with their organizations every day.
“The annual W&A Engineering barbeque is something that we’ve done for years to thank all our partners who help us build better communities,” Amy Kissane added. “We didn’t want the pandemic to end our streak, so we decided to use the opportunity to help some amazing organizations who do incredible things for our communities.”
At Harris Shoals Park, we had quite a few different stations set up. Step one was smoking 1000 pounds of whole hams overnight. We were met the next morning with delicious aromas coming from our smoker! Once the hams were taken out of the smoker, the meat was pulled apart, chopped, seasoned, and sauced. Afterwards, it was transported to a packing station where the meat was sorted into various containers before those containers were labeled and packaged for our non-profit recipients. The end result was 400 pounds of pulled pork ready for distribution.
After the hard work was done, our volunteers were rewarded with the fruits of their labors, and we enjoyed some wonderful conversation and community over barbeque, salads, and desserts. Our President and CEO, Jon Williams, inspired us with words of wisdom, and our leading ladies, Amy Kissane and Bobbie Holt, kept us all organized and on track.
At the end of the event, we compiled 340 pounds of compost with Awesome Possum Composting. We look forward to having an in-person barbeque next year to celebrate all of W&A Engineering’s incredible growth, and we thank each of these non-profits for continuing to build better communities!