The City Wire Person of the Month: Terry Flanagan

 

Editor’s note: The City Wire highlights each month a person in the Fort Smith region. Special recognitions, accomplishments, philanthropic support and input from The City Wire readers are considered when selecting a person to profile.

story and photos by Roy Hill

Terry Flanagan’s love of barbecue and desire to help area youth have led to the second annual Spare Ribs for the Kids fund raiser.

Flanagan, who works as a master mechanic at Fort Smith-based Arkansas Oklahoma Gas Corp., will put his competitive barbecue experience back to work, smoking racks of ribs that can be ordered for pickup on Super Bowl Sunday for $15 each. Orders need to be placed by Jan 23. (To place orders, call the Flanagans at 674-2646, or 459-0834.)

All proceeds from the rib sales will fund a scholarship program operated by the Fort Smith branch of the United States Bowling Congress.

“All the money we make on this goes into an account that’s strictly for scholarships,” Flanagan said. “The money we raise will go to kids in this area.”

Area youth can qualify for the USBC scholarships by enrolling in a local Saturday bowling league, and winning their part of the scholarship pot in sponsored scholarship tournaments.

“Kids can enter these tournaments from the time they are old enough to roll a ball down the lane,” Flanagan explained. “If they can roll the ball down the lane, they can get in. And they can keep winning scholarship money up to age 20. Just call either Bowling World or Midland Bowl, and enroll in a Saturday morning league. There will be an enrollment fee to pay for a shirt. The USBC put in a new regulation that all the kids have to wear the same kind of shirt. And then they can bowl in the city tournament or a scholarship tournament or a memorial tournament and win scholarship money.”

According to Flanagan, any scholarship money won by the youth bowlers during their participation in a league stays with them, and is saved in an account under their social security number. The students then have up to six years after they graduate high school to use the scholarship money — or for those who join the military, up to six years after they return from active duty.

Roxanne Jester’s daughter, Amanda Schlinker, attends the Poteau campus of the Kiamichi Technology Center. Schlinker started bowling in a Saturday morning league at age 11, and by the time she was 18, had earned $4,000 in scholarship money.

“My advice to parents is to start them young,” Jester said. “They can start earning scholarship money as young as six. Most parents don’t know the extent of scholarship money their kids can earn, even by just participating.

Jester said there was no requirement for the youth bowlers to win tournaments to earn scholarship money, but that they could earn participation points that add up to scholarship dollars.

Flanagan hopes the 2010 Spare Ribs for Kids total beats the amount raised in 2009.

“Last year we cleared about $2,600 and sold 264 racks of ribs. I think the USBC paid out about $4,000 in scholarships in this area last year,” he said.

Flanagan founded the Fort Smith Barbecue Society along with Brian Barham, Mark Marcoletti and Greg “Elvis” South. Flanagan informally cooked for family and friends for years, and worked at local restaurants Goodson’s, El Chico’s and Jason’s Deli. He got serious about barbecue in 1994.

“We competed in all the area barbecue contests,” Flanagan said. “We went to Kansas City and Pine Bluff, and Bentonville, and at the Kansas City Barbecue Society American Royal, we took 34th in ribs out of 500 entries.”

And the same type of careful attention will go into the Spare Ribs for Kids ribs. Every rack sold will be rubbed with extra virgin olive oil, a competition rub, and all glazed twice, once while cooking, and once when they’re reheated.

Flanagan says there are too many area people to thank for their assistance and donations with the fund raiser.

“We’re working with former and current members of the Fort Smith Barbecue Society,” Flanagan said. “Thomas and Angela Judkins are helping with this. Jody Rupe at Jody’s Muffler’s is letting us use a large cooker. AOG is letting us use a cooker, and we’re getting ingredients donated, and all kinds of help from the community.”

The Judkins helped cook for last year’s fund raiser, and will be back at the smoker with Flanagan this year.

"Terry is all about doing charity work for kids," said Angela Judkins. "He’s not in it for himself. This is a wonderful project for the kids, and his ribs are wonderful. My husband and I cooked competition barbecue and we know what good ribs taste like. Folks can’t go wrong getting some of Terry’s ribs."

Flanagan wants more area youth involved in the Saturday morning leagues and competing for those scholarship dollars.

“This weekend [Jan 9 and 10] we had 80 to 100 kids competing at Bowling World in a tournament,” Flanagan said. “The number has dropped a little lately, but we want more kids involved. We want everybody.”