
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, September 8, 1993                   TAG: 9309230292
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

CHILI SOCIETY STARTS DRIVE IN ROANOKE

Roanoke will be the first stop on a cross-country drive to collect signatures on a petition to make chili America's official food.

The campaign, organized by the International Chili Society in Newport Beach, Calif., will start Monday in Washington, D.C., with a news conference at the Capitol building. ICS lobbyist Lou Priebe - who also founded Chili USA, sponsor of the Chili Bill in Congress in 1984 - will outline the goals of the project, which will also be a fund-raiser for the American Red Cross.

The ICS delegation will travel from Washington in a motorized stagecoach with a 300-pound copper chili pot on its top. It is scheduled to arrive at approximately 4 p.m. at First Team Hyundai on Peters Creed Road for a petition-signing party.

ICS is asking chili lovers to help move the stagecoach across the country by making tax-deductible pledges to the American Red Cross. Each $10 per mile pledge will earn donors a chance to win a 1994 Hyundai Sonata. The drawing for the car will be held Oct. 3 during the World Championship Chili Cookoff in Reno, Nev.

The Virginia Friends of Chili will host the Roanoke stop. Members will be at the petition-signing to answer questions and to serve samples of chili.

by CNB