Kelsee Brady, managing editor
On Feb. 22, the Leadership Fellows scholarship hosted an event known as SOUP Off. With 22 soup entries and over 200 attendees, the SOUP Off raised an estimated $1200, according to Cecily Crow, Leadership Fellows scholarship coordinator.
The SOUP Off donates all profits to the Sponsorship of Orphans in Uganda Project (SOUP), which was founded by alumna Leadership Fellow Brin Enterkin (12C) in 2009. According to the AfricanSOUP website, Enterkin was inspired to start the non-profit after a trip to Uganda where she taught microfinance.
Enterkin and Crow came up with the idea of the SOUP Off as a replacement to the former Chili Cook-Off and the Leadership Fellows took charge of planning the event around 2015.
“The SOUP Off the first time we hosted it was either in 2009 or 2010,” Crow said. “At that time a student named Brin Enterkin had just been in Uganda that summer teaching microfinancing to women in the villages in Uganda and just fell in love with the country, but also connected with some locals there with, needs for orphans. So she came back really fired up and ready to do something and had this idea to start a nonprofit as, a sophomore in college.”
Crow said that she approached Enterkin about the idea of having the SOUP Off to benefit the organization that Enterkin had named The African SOUP.
A group of Leadership Fellows served as the organizers of the SOUP Off. Juniors McGarrah Walker and Kayleigh Strech along with seniors Chris Grant and Chloe Wegeinka planned the event after it’s hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We’ve just been working through and planning it especially since we’ve had, Covid and everything, it’s been a few years. So we’re kinda revamping a few things and just trying to bring it back for the community.“
Improvements to the event were made this year with the addition of a photo booth and tweaking the voting and publicity strategies for the event. In previous years, voting took place on paper ballots, however, this year voting was conducted via an online form that attendees accessed through a QR code. Publicity strategies prior to the event this year included “spooning” people’s cars and recruiting faculty and staff members prior to the announcing of the event, according to Crow.
“One of the changes we did make was trying to recruit a few, groups to enter before we went public,” Crow said. “So like Dr. Dexter and Dr. Rowan Fannin, we asked if they would participate before we started advertising it and that’s something we’ll continue to do is ‘who are some key people that will hopefully draw interest?’”
Crow said the event had 22 groups enter soups and four winners were announced at the end of the event. A friend group of five, known as “The Backyardigans” and represented by seniors McKenzie Darnell and Katelynn Davenport entered a Tortellini soup and took home the first place prize with a trophy, golden spoon and $50 Doug’s Deli gift card.
“We made a Tortellini soup and we made it because it was [Darnell’s] grandma’s recipe, it’s near and dear to our hearts,” Davenport said.
The two planned to enter the SOUP Off since it was announced and chose the Tortellini soup due to its history in Darnell’s family.
“My grandma, would make this for us after church on Sundays and it was just a really historic soup. It just brought family together,” Darnell said. “Now, we bring the berry community together.”
Overall, Crow was impressed with the atmosphere of the event and how well it went. With the lifting of the mask mandate last week, Crow said that the event felt like a return to normalcy in a time of unpredictable change.
“It’s a fun community event, like last night felt normal,” Crow said. “We didn’t have to wear masks, we were enjoying each other’s company and it’s fun to see the faculty, staff and students at an event.”
Walker and Crow both saw the event as a way to unify the Berry community and contribute to a great cause.
“I hope that the Berry community can come together, to support something that’s bigger than ourselves and just commit to supporting a cause especially we are all so privileged to be at Berry,” Walker said. “Donating even $3 is enough to change someone’s life, even if that’s all the way in Africa. I’m just hoping that it brings community for us to support another community.”