For the 17th year in a row, you have the opportunity to eat infinite crawfish and simultaneously support families battling childhood cancer.
The annual Hope for Autumn Crawfish Boil will be held from 3–9 p.m. on April 26 in Ross Bridge. The goal of the boil is simple: “Eat crawfish, give hope.”
Annually, the Hope for Autumn Foundation organizes The Boil to fund local childhood cancer research and donate to families in Alabama who are facing childhood cancer of any kind. The foundation’s mission has always been to offer support and assistance to those who need it and to advance research methods in childhood cancer therapies.
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Photo courtesy of Hope for Autumn Foundation
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Photo courtesy of Hope for Autumn Foundation
The executive director of the foundation, Amanda Knerr, has been advocating for childhood cancer ever since her daughter Emily was diagnosed with ovarian cancer at the age of six. Emily is now 21 and attends The University of Alabama.
To Knerr, the foundation and the crawfish boil are about giving back.
“We help anybody we can because I just couldn’t turn my back on it after all that happened,” Knerr said. “I couldn’t turn my back on the cause after seeing the struggle. It meant so much to me to see how generous people were.”
The boil began in the backyard of a home in Ross Bridge in 2006. The homeowner, Travis Diggs, organized this first crawfish boil to raise money for a child named Autumn, his friend’s daughter who was battling cancer.
When it was a success, he decided to make it a tradition. Then, the annual Hope for Autumn Crawfish Boil was born in the heart of Ross Bridge.
John Hein, a Louisiana native, boils 4,500 pounds of crawfish for the event. In Knerr’s words, he makes sure every pound tastes amazing.
The event attracts around 2,000 people and raises about $200,000 per year. According to Knerr, the money they have raised has gone from helping a couple of families a year to now helping between 16 and 100 families per year.
“Just last month, we paid for a family to get new tires on their car so that they could get their child to treatment,” Knerr said. “We paid for a headstone for an eight-month-old. Sometimes, we help with funerals. We paid for some moving expenses for somebody whose child had cancer, and then they had a house fire, so we helped them move. Normal life things still happen even if your child has cancer, so we try to help them.”
The junior board, which consists of students enrolled in 7th–12th grade, provides volunteer support for the event. You can find them working the front booths, scooping crawfish, and even selling bundt cakes in their own booth. They also assist in the set-up and clean-up.
The event is fun for all ages—live music, face painting, bouncy houses, balloon artists for the kids, and, of course, all-you-can-eat crawfish for everyone.
Tickets usually go on sale at the beginning of April. If you or anyone you know is interested in volunteering for the event, please visit hopeforautumnfoundation.org/volunteer-the-boil.