MOUNT VERNON — The Mount Vernon Nazarene University Criminal Justice program hosted a chili cookoff Thursday night at the Lakeholm Church of the Nazarene. The cookoff raised money to benefit the Knox County Juvenile Drug Court.
The Drug Court was begun in 2000 as a response to increased drug usage among juveniles in the county. Juvenile Drug Court is an intense program of both punishment and intervention. The Drug Court Program is run in collaboration with the Drug and Alcohol Freedom Center of Knox County.
“The Juvenile Drug Court is clearly our most intensive program in terms of the demands it makes in young people and their parents, frankly,” said Juvenile Court Judge James Ronk. “By definition, these are young people who have an issue with drugs. I don’t want to suggest they are all addicted. Some of them are. But I will say drugs are having a negative impact in their lives in one way or another.”
The program involves a variety of activities, court dates and meetings to teach the young people alternatives to using drugs and alcohol.
“The Drug Court model is one of accountability,” Ronk explained. “The core idea is that you have a frequent accounting where each of the kids comes in with their parents and meets with one of the magistrates or myself. They give us an accounting of what they’ve done the last week, either good or bad. Then there is some reaction from the bench.”
The individuals are given extra discipline if the report is bad and given rewards if the report is good.
“These are usually pretty modest rewards,” Ronk said. “Sometimes the rewards come in the form of forgiving some of their fines, things of that nature. Other times the rewards are something a little more tangible like a free pizza or free movie.”
Ronk said there is more to the program than just coming in to see a magistrate. Each individual has a therapist at the Freedom Center. There are both individual and group therapy sessions and each Wednesday night is an activity night. Ronk said it’s a core part of the drug program.
“Unfortunately, a lot of these kids’ only idea of how to spend leisure time is to smoke marijuana or drink beer,” Ronk said. “So we literally have to teach them how to spend their leisure time. It’s leisure time skills.”
This kind of program does not come cheap. Funding comes from a number of different sources.
“We originally funded the program with a grant,” Ronk explained. “We still have some grant money but the rest of the money comes from Reclaim Ohio funds from the state of Ohio, Most juvenile courts get this money. It’s a combination of state money and grant money.”
Money also comes from the Chili Cookoff. The event is sponsored by students in the MVNU Criminal Justice Program. MVNU students help arrange the event by finding a place to hold it and setting up and tearing down tables and chairs at the event. Individuals in the Drug Court Program are on hand to serve the chili.
“For the last two years we have been working with the Drug Court Program to put on the Chili Cookoff said Merel Pickenpaugh, Criminal Justice Program coordinator at MVNU. “They were having some issues about where to have it. So I told them let’s see if we can help you.”
Pickenpaugh arranged for the event to be held at the Lakholm Church of the Nazarene.
“I involved my criminal justice students in it, too” he said. “They were all here at 3:30 this afternoon setting up everything. Some of them will be back about 7:30 to tear down everything.”
Pickenpaugh said it was a perfect opportunity for his students to work with the local criminal justice system and with the individuals in the drug court program. Students also get involved with many of the different criminal justice areas in the local court system.
“This is a fundraiser for the drug court kids,” said Lisa Harris of the Freedom Center, which is one of the event’s sponsors. “They raise money so they have money for activities throughout the year. They do a lot of good for the community. It gets them out there so the community can see how good they are.”
Chris Miner was in attendance with his family to not just sample the chili but show it off.
“We’ve been coming for four years now,” he said. “The chili is great. I’m also an entrant, too. There’s a lot of good competition. But my main reason for doing it is it’s a great cause. Joe Mazzari, director of Juvenile Probation was also on hand.
“The chili is very good,” he said. “There are lots of good people out there who want to do this for us. They really put their hearts into it.”
Chris Murphy is a big fan of the cookoff.
“So far the chili is very good,” she said. “I’ve only tried four kinds but so far it’s good. I come here because my friend is involved. It’s a fun kind of thing to do. And I know the magistrate and a lot of the other people. It’s a thing I love to do.”
The cookoff invites community members to prepare their favorite chili recipe for judging among the guests at the cookoff. This year there were nearly 30 entrants with a wide variety of recipes ranging from traditional chilies to fire alarm chilies and a java or coffee-based chili.
There were five different categories for judging. Winners in those categories were:
Sweet Lovin’: Peggy Samples, Danville.
Road Kill: Misty Jenkins, Mount Vernon.
People’s Choice: David Barber, Mount Vernon.
Fire Alarm: Andy Beatty, Mount Vernon.
Most Original: Gloria Parisson, Centerburg.
According to Melissa Body of the Freedom Center, Thursday night’s event raised $455, the most in the history of the event.
