Beca Short
“It’s for the kids.”
The Wild Game Dinner has become one of Kendall County’s signature events, and Beca Short has been at its center since the beginning — organizing, recruiting and rallying a community around its kids.
In 2011, I was chairman of the board for the Boerne Chamber and was tasked with finding a new event. I called a friend, Lester Meier in Fredericksburg, about a possible rodeo. He suggested a Wild Game Dinner instead. He offered to help, and they really did. To this day, they still come to help us.
Four or five years in, it grew so much that the Chamber permitted me to take it on my own. Karen Daly and I formed the 501(c)(3) organization. I also sat on the board for the Kendall County Junior Livestock Show. I thought we needed to move this under the Junior Livestock umbrella because we serve the same group of people.
Whenever we get frustrated or tired, we remind ourselves: It’s for the kids. From the start, it has been a family-friendly event. We raise scholarship money, buy animals and projects at stock shows and support our county show. We also attend the district show, which spans several counties, and spend money there.
We don’t just affect kids in Kendall County — we reach beyond. I’ve got a stack of thank-you cards from kids all over Texas, especially South Texas. Notes that say things like, ‘I didn’t know anybody, thank you for buying my animal.’
Thankfully, we have great buyers in our county who step up, regardless of whether they know the kids or not. The Wild Game Dinner helps take some of that burden off them. At our county sale last year, we had about 316 kids. The sale totaled $2 million. That’s a lot of animals, a lot of kids and a lot of money. Last year, we also raised $100,000 to build a shotgun shooting complex for the shooting team. They’d been having to drive to Kerrville and wait for late time slots.
When the floods came in July, we had first responders stationed at Comfort High School. from Indiana, Nevada and Texas A&M Task Force. I dropped off supplies and met one of the guys. I told him about the Wild Game Dinner and offered to pull something together for them. Within three days, we rounded up several teams and cooks to serve over 60 pounds of fried fish, 500 quail poppers, 50 pounds of axis with cream gravy, 80 pounds of sausage links, 75 pounds of mashed potatoes, cobblers, cookies, chili con carne — the works.
Some of the people from out of state had never eaten quail or axis before. Some didn’t even know what a Frito pie was. They thought it was nachos. Some of those guys came back three times. It was humbling. We just wanted to say, ‘thank you.’
This is a volunteer role, but it requires a significant amount of time. Jefferson Bank has supported me every step of the way. I’m lucky to have an employer that values community as much as I do.
We throw a good party. We take care of our guests, our sponsors and our kids. That’s the bottom line.
