Toss out cancer; Bean bag tourney, hotdish feed returns to raise funds for PTTP

Published 10:22 am Thursday, January 21, 2016

People compete in the 2015 bean bag tournament at Hoot & Ole’s Smittys Tavern. -- Photo provided

People compete in the 2015 bean bag tournament at Hoot & Ole’s (Smittys) Tavern. — Photo provided

An Austin bar is looking to bring people together with bean bags and food this weekend for a good cause.

Hoot & Ole’s Smittys Tavern, 105 11th St. SE in Austin, will hold its third annual outdoor Bean Bag Tourney and Old Fashioned Hotdish Feed this Saturday with registration starting at 11 a.m. before the tournament starts at noon.

Jeremy “Ole” Olson, Hoot & Ole’s co-owner, said the event makes for a fun way to raise money for Paint the Town Pink, even if tournament participants get a few looks from people passing by as they compete outside.

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“We gets lot of looks when we’re standing out there and it’s 20 degrees,” Olson said.

The high for Saturday is expected to be around 23 degrees, and Olson noted participants in the bean bag toss will have plenty of changes to warm up inside.

Cost is $10 to compete in the double elimination bean bag tournament, and partners for the two-person teams will be drawn at random.

About 30 people complete last year, and Olson is hoping for 20 teams of two people this year.

People can also come just to eat. Cost is $5 and food will be served until its gone. There will also a silent auction.

All money raised will go to Paint the Town Pink through the Dutchtown Jumpers Polar Plunge team, which raised about $10,000 in 2015 to be the plunge team. This year’s plunge is Jan. 30 on East Side Lake.

Olson, who co-owns the bar with Wayne “Hoot” and Judy Enright, said it’s important for them to give back to the community, and they like knowing the money raised through PTTP could one day help find a cure or new treatments for cancer.

“We try to give back to the community as much as we can and to the Hormel Institute,” Olson said.

PTTP fundraisers