Children's Health Defense (CHD) NY: Cookout 2023 – It Was Dynamic!

On Saturday, August 19, 2023, CHD NY, had its first cookout which took place at Pelham Bay Park in the Bronx.  It was mostly the volunteers and family members who help with CHD rallies and other activities that we do. To say that this cookout was fun would be an understatement! It was pure spontaneous magic!

We found a perfect spot under some trees. We were also blessed with having plenty of open green grass to lay on and for the kids to play in. The weather was perfect! It was a beautiful sunny day with a few scattered clouds. It was warm with cool breezes blowing. 

The food was excellent! For some reason, everything always tastes better on a grill. To top it all off we had a professional chef doing the cooking! He made what had to be the best-grilled chicken I have ever had! We had plenty of grilled hamburgers, hot dogs, corn on the cob, and even shrimp among many other delicious foods.

We also had fantastic music supplied by Celso Santiago. He played many of the classic hits from the 70s and 80s. It brought back so many great memories. Celso had people on their feet dancing and singing!   I was even singing and tapping my feet to the beat of the music.

Celso also played some Salsa and had people on their feet and dancing with each other as you will see in the attached video above.  

There was a magical chemistry that happened between everyone at this cookout. We all were enjoying each other's company, laughing, and telling. We were also playing board games with each other. 

What I found most exciting was watching the adults revert back to having a second childhood for a few hours, especially the women! The women were having fun doing Double Dutch jump rope. A few of them were actually able to do pretty good, even though they had not jumped rope in years. 

Some of the women were even climbing the tree that we were under! I could not believe it! I am almost embarrassed to say that most of the men were not as adventurous as the women!

I think the kids probably had the most fun of all! They were throwing frisbees at each other. We also had a football and they enjoyed throwing it around. The kids were running up and down the field flying the kites we purchased for them. On top of all that we had some Nerf guns and the children were ducking behind trees as they shot at each other the soft sponge-like balls. They were having so much fun that it was hard to get them to stop when it was time to get ready to go home! 

We were also honored to have the famous attorney Bobbie Anne Cox join our picnic! She is the person who won her case against the regulation which would have established quarantine facilities that the Governor of New York and the Attorney General wanted to impose on New Yorkers.  Bobbie Anne Cox will be back in Court on September 13 in Rochester, New York to fight the Governor’s appeal.  Despite the battles ahead, Bobbie Anne was smiling and enjoying the fun with the rest of us!

Everyone thanked me for organizing this event and told me they had tremendous fun! They all agreed that we definitely need to do this again.  No one wanted to leave, including myself. If the park didn't have a closing time of 7 PM, we could've stayed out there until late evening. It was a perfect cookout with a lot of really great people which made all the difference in the world!

Big thanks to Celso Santiago and all of the others who worked so hard to make this wonderful event possible.

Curtis Cost