Suckin' on crawdads

With the raise in gas prices and the shortage of volunteers, Meals on Wheels board director Tim Ogilvy said Monday's Mudbug 10 might have came at the right time.

"The gas prices are killing our volunteers," Ogilvy said. "They are only volunteers and we don't pay them back money for gas but we may have to start doing that. Maybe this event will help renew interest in volunteering."

Ogilvy said the money raised would help the organization continue to provide meals to the needy and elderly in Odessa.

"We raised right at $150,000 tonight," he said. "People always turn out for an event for Meals on Wheels. They like what we do and this money will help us continue to help the community."

Sam Gonzalez, a member of the Mudbug 10 cooking crew, said he brought a crew of seasoned Cajun chefs from Louisiana in hopes to bring more Odessans to the Graham Central Station for the event.

"We brought cooks from New Liberia, La., to cook the live crawfish," Gonzalez said. "We cooked them but we wanted to bring in people who are professionals at cooking crawdads. It's all a plan to bring more people to the event and to make them want to come back next year."

The plan must have worked.

Melissa Hirsch said she'd definitely come back for the 11th annual event.

"It tasted really good," Hirsch said. "Unless something happens where I can't make it, I'll be here next year."

Gonzalez said he hopes every person who attended Monday's festivities comes back next year because Meals on Wheels have affected him personally.

"I never thought Meals on Wheels would affect me this much," he said. "My mom pays for her meals but Meals on Wheels delivers them to her. I'm personally invested to this charity."

BY THE NUMBERS:

>> 1,200: Pounds of shrimp.

>> 800: Pounds of catfish.

>> 700: Pounds of crawfish.

>> 500: Pounds of potatoes.

>> 500: Pounds of corn.

>> $150,000: Estimated amount raised.

>> 1,000 to 1,200: People that attended event.