Optimist Club BBQ This Saturday

The annual East Ridge Optimist Club barbecue is coming up this Saturday, May 6 at Camp Jordan.

The barbecue, one of the club’s biggest fundraising events of the year, will be held in the park’s new pavilion across from the arena, organizers said. All proceeds go toward the club’s youth programs and community projects.

Pork and chicken plates complete with slaw and beans can be purchased for $7. Sandwiches are $4 each. Drinks are not included in the purchase price.

Hours for the barbecue are 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

About Dick Cook

Dick Cook has lived in East Ridge since the Kennedy Administration when his parents bought a house on Marietta Street. Dick graduated from ERHS in 1976 before going on to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga where he studied Political Science. Dick worked for the Chattanooga Free-Press and the Chattanooga Times Free Press for 22 years. Free-Press Sports Editor Roy Exum plucked him out of production in 1989 and gave him a job as a sports reporter. Dick covered everything from prep sports to the whitewater events on the Ocoee River for the 1996 Olympics. When Chattanooga's two paper's merged, he became the Crime Reporter covering both the Chattanooga Police and Fire Departments. He was among reporters who were honored by the Associated Press for the TFP's coverage of the 2002 fog-shrouded crash on I-75 in Catoosa County, Dick and his wife, Cathy, live on Marlboro Avenue where they are seen frequently chasing around their three grandsons.