COURTLAND
When the Hunterdale Ruritan Club presents its seven scholarships for the year, the recipients will benefit from the generosity of a lot of people, many of whom they might actually know. That’s because the money is coming from ticket sales of the club’s annual western beef barbecue feast, which took place on Wednesday at the fairgrounds.

Murray Turner, serving as the feast chairman this year, said on Thursday afternoon there were a little over 1,300 tickets sold. There, it seemed as if everywhere you looked, there was somebody you knew. While most guests were from Franklin or Southampton, many others came from places such as Jarratt (Clint and Davis Holloway); Smithfield (Sara Brock); Virginia Beach (Liz Bartholomew); Zuni (Tasha Hedgepeth); and also parts of North Carolina.

For example, Rachel Romick came from Asheville, North Carolina, to be with her friends, Ryan Stephenson of Wakefield, Paige Singleton of Gladys and Megan Revell of Franklin. Then from Eure, there was the Vann Family: W.C., Twinkle, Katelyn and Walter, who all figured they’ve been attending the feast most years it’s been presented.

Even as late as 6 p.m., there was still plenty of beef on the grill. Taylor Williams was again among the members overseeing the cooking.

He estimated 2,800 pounds of top sirloin select was selected for the occasion.

The project began with picking up the beef at 7 that morning from Grayson and Emma’s, and by 9:30, the grilling began.

“We want everybody to have fellowship,” Williams said, looking over at the guests.

Turner said that $24,000 was budgeted for community contributions, such as the aforementioned scholarships, March of Dimes, Relay For Life, baseball teams and, of course, the Hunterdale Volunteer Fire Department. Last year’s figure, he recalled, was about $22,000.

“It takes a team effort to make this come together,” he said, crediting the 57 other club members, friends and all the sponsors.