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| End summer with good brews and chili By Stacy Trevenon [ stacy@hmbreview.com ] Published/Last Modified on Wednesday, September 16, 2009 9:45 AM PDT Summer on the Coastside will close with two events designed to provide a good time for and help out Coastside attendees, with on Saturday afternoon, Sept. 19. The Coastside Adult Day Health Center, with the Boys and Girls Club of the Coastside, is resurrecting the old Brew Ha Ha in the form of HMB Brew Fest from noon to 4 p.m. on Saturday. The Brew Ha Ha was a productive fundraiser for the then-Coastside Infant Toddler Center (now Coastside Child Development Center.) Meanwhile, on the same day, the American Legion Post 474 in Princeton plans its annual Alec Engel Memorial Chili Cookoff from 1 to 4 p.m., to both honor a well-loved late comrade and showcase the legion on the coast. The Brew Ha Ha continued into the 1990s until organizers, conscious that some might view an alcohol-centered event to benefit children as inappropriate, redesigned it for the renamed child development center into the Bids for Kids. “It was a really good fundraiser,” said CADHC Executive Director Janie Bono-James. “We thought, if it’s so successful, why not resurrect it?” The Brew Fest will feature the products of 15 Bay Area regional microbreweries, including the Half Moon Bay Brewing Company. An admission fee of $30 will bring a commemorative pilsner glass. Sausages and hot dogs will top the fare. The idea of the Brew Fest will be developed and enhanced in coming years, she added. “We want to bring it back and do it even better, creating an ‘Oktoberfest on the Coast.’” Proceeds will be divided between the two nonprofits. That will be welcome, said Bono-James, noting that the center experienced a 35 percent budget cut this year, affecting services for frail elderly clients and those with Alzheimer’s disease. “Proceeds from this event will go directly into an ‘angel’ fund to cover the gap,” she said. For information, call the center at 726-5067. Over at the American Legion, the Sept. 19 event will spotlight the legion and honor popular member and late Vietnam veteran Engel, described by legion peers as an effortless boon companion with an upbeat outlook and ready smile. “The guy was bulletproof,” said 20-year member Mike Duffey. “He always had a smile. Everything we had going, he was always behind it.” “Singularly there was no one at the legion who was not fond of Alec Engel,” said vice commander Julian McCurrach. “He always looked everyone in the eye, and was interested in what was going on with them.” Engel died in 2006 due to illness, but his friends have not forgotten him. The legion had held a golf tournament and then a chili cookoff before deciding to combine them into a memorial to Engel. The public is invited to participate by preparing chili recipes at the legion on that day, when organizers hope to have 10 to 15 Texas-style homemade recipes to sample and $5 will procure three of them. Along with the chili, there will be beverages and hamburgers. The idea is to let the coast know more about the legion, said McCurrach. “It’s your legion,” he said. Visitors can also dance to the five-man Wall of Blues, which covers Chicago blues, rock, R&B and soul classics for dancing. Primarily Bay Area residents, they consist of saxophonist and keyboardist Peter Loeb, guitarist Jeff Miles, bassist Brian Reynolds, percussionist Mike Winder and El Granada resident Joe “Mojo” Flambo, a 30-year harmonica player who played with New Orleans combo the Propagators in the 1970s and original southern rock band Southwind in Las Vegas in the 1980s. For information, call McCurrach at (650) 399-5617. |