Spicy cooking and a healthy spirit of competition will both be in abundance at the Benton County Fairgrounds on Sunday as the Benton County Sheriff’s Office presents a Chili Cook-Off to benefit Benton CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates).

The event will include 15 booths featuring competing chili cookers, beer and beverages, live music, door prizes, and a lot of family-oriented fun.

Nicole Dodson, event organizer, is a volunteer with the sheriff’s office, and one day casually asked Benton County Sheriff Diana Simpson if they’d ever held a chili cook-off. As a native of Houston, Texas, Dodson was used to such fund-raising events in her hometown. Simpson said they hadn’t held one, but that if Dodson liked, she could start working on arranging one.

Dodson said she hadn’t intended to volunteer herself for the duty, but once she started thinking about it, she got excited at the chance. She and Simpson decided the event would raise money for a favorite local nonprofit of Simpson’s, Benton CASA, which links abused children in the court system with volunteer advocates.

“Every penny goes to CASA, none of it goes to the Sheriff’s Office,” Dodson said. “They are merely the big presence behind it.”

Simpson said CASA is a natural fit with the Sheriff’s Office.

“We’re the first responders in homes where (children) have been abused and neglected,” Simpson said, so her officers see first-hand the need to advocate for those children.

In past years, Simpson’s family has often held its own chili cook-offs, and she’s pleased that her husband will be a cook on one of the teams, while she’ll be a judge. She said the blind taste-testing will ensure that fairness will be upheld during the competition.

Teams include members of the Sheriff’s Office, Corvallis Fire Department, Philomath Police Department, Parole and Probation, the Parent Enhancement Program, Clodfelters, the Corvallis Police Officers Association, the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary, the Chamber of Commerce, and two community teams. Participants bring their own recipes, and set up their own booth where all of the cooking is done. They must decorate their booths with themes, and offer raffle items to raise extra money for CASA.

“It’s all about showmanship,” Dodson said.

As a lifelong chili fan, Dodson said, she knows what it takes to make good chili.

“The flavor has to be spicy,” she said. “It has to have a good kick to it.”

Celebrity judges will help determine which team is crowned with the chili cook-off crown. They include Judge Locke Williams, Corvallis Mayor Charlie Tomlinson, County Commissioners Annabelle Jaramillo, Jay Dixon and Linda Modrell, restaurateur Cloud Davidson, Sheriff Simpson and CASA director Joanna Engle. OSU basketball coach Craig Robinson also will make an appearance at the event.

Some of the event highlights include fire trucks, marine patrol boats, Benton County Sheriff’s Office cruisers, the K-9 unit, a REACH Air Ambulance helicopter, Oregon Army National Guard displays and the Sheriff’s Posse.

CASA was created by an Oregon statute (ORS 419A-170) that mandates that children who are made wards of the state because of abuse will be appointed a special advocate who will represent their best interest, as the court determines whether or not they’ll be turned back over to the custody of their biological parents.

CASA volunteers are required to investigate each case through interviews and home visitations, advocate for the child in court, facilitate the case by making sure commitments of different agencies are being met, and monitor the various agents and family members involved.

“CASA volunteers get the big picture” about the case, said Benton CASA director Joanna Engle, because they’re involved in so many aspects of the situation, whereas other participants, from social workers to the judge, only see one or two pieces of the puzzle. That’s why the recommendations of CASA volunteers are taken so seriously during a case.

According to Engle, Benton County residents are particularly lucky, because there are enough volunteers that every child who becomes a ward of the court receives a CASA representative.

“That’s very rare,” Engle said.

The cook-off takes place from noon to 5 p.m. Sunday at the Benton County Fairgrounds. Admission is $5, half price with a military ID, and free for kids ages 5 and under.