Music Roundup gives to community, collects for food bank

By BRITTANY FHOLER

Cove Leader-Press

The sun came out just in time for the 19th annual Backyard Music Round Up hosted by Refuge Ministries at Copperas Cove City Park on Saturday.

The free event, which ran from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m., featured a car and bike show, a barbeque lunch, live music along with activities for kids such as a bounce house, face painting, balloon animals and games such as giant Jenga and giant Checkers.

The car and bike show had 13 entries, with participants bringing a food donation item as their entry fee. The show brought in five bags and one cardboard box of canned and non-perishable food items benefitting Mission Casa. Car show participants also donated a total of $115 towards Mission Casa, bringing the total amount of money raised at the event to $227.

Tim Fry brought his custom red, white and blue 2010 trike motorcycle, with a 1973 1600 CC Volkswagen motor, to the car and bike show, as the only motorcycle present.  This car and bike show was the second he had entered his trike in, he said. He found out about the show from his neighbor, Tracy Semmel, who was at the show with his blue flame ’65 Chevy pickup.

“It’s a beautiful day,” Fry said. “I was going to do some yard work but I thought, ‘You know what, I’ll just roll on down here and see what it’s about.’ And it’s nice that people still do these things.”

Fry said that he was kind of shocked that the entry fee was just a canned food donation but thought it was nice.

“These guys get to show their cars and then you bring food and you help somebody else out in the same token, and everybody else comes out and has a good time,” Fry said.

The live music was provided by Tommy Clark, Refuge Ministries’ Cove Campus Praise Band, Jackie Cox, Kingdom Grind, Jim and Teresa Steiger, Norm and Betty Parker, and Paula Fleming.

The event began 19 years ago as a fundraiser for the Refuge Ministries’ Cove Campus worship team and was held in the backyard of the church, according to Jodi Swanner, Refuge Ministries’ worship leader. After two years as a fundraiser, they decided to hold the event for the community and held it the third year at their Cove campus one last time. It rained on them two of those three years, Swanner said. Since moving the event to the City Park and holding the free event, it has not rained on the day of the event, she added.

“This is year 19,” Swanner said. “Sixteen of those 19 have been sunny skies even though, like this year, we’ve had a couple of years where it rained all week before and the day of is beautiful.”

In previous years, as many as 1,500 attended, especially with ball games and other park activities taking palce. Swanner attributed the lower numbers of people this year to the Copperas Cove High School prom happening that evening and the previous day of rain.

Because of prom, the church had planned on scaling down the event anyway, which ended up being a good thing because there would have been too much food left over otherwise, Swanner added.

The reception from the community regarding the event has been of appreciation, she said.

“We’ve had homeless come in, and so it’s a free meal for them which is great,” Swanner said.

A frequent question the church gets asked is why they are holding the event for free and giving away free food.

“We just want to love on our community, that’s about it,” Swanner said.

Jerry Smith, pastor at Mission Casa, explained that this year marks the first year that donations raised at the event will be going towards the Mission Casa Food Bank, located at the Refuge Ministries Mission Casa campus at 306 Casa Dr.

The fourth Sunday of each month, the Mission Casa Food Bank is open from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. to residents who live in the nearby area- on Casa Dr, Casa Circle, Sunset Ln, Horseshoe Dr, Westview Ln and Georgetown Rd.

“Usually people leave with a couple bags of canned goods, a bag of dry goods and 10-15 pounds of frozen chicken,” Smith said.

The food bank sometimes receives donations of sausage, venison or other wild game, he added.

If someone is interested in donating to Mission Casa, they can contact Smith by phone at (254) 258-4275 or by email at Jerry@Refuge-Ministries.com or they can bring their food items anytime during the week to the Cove Campus of Refuge Ministries, located at 2602 S. F.M. 116.