UNIONVILLE — “I’ve been told over and over again this is the event of the year.”

Bryan Lynip, an assistant principal at Unionville Elementary School, will witness the school’s annual barbecue for the first time Friday. He has spent weeks volunteering in preparation for barbecue No. 60.

Is it all it’s cracked up to be?

“I haven’t lived through it,” Lynip said, “but it seems like it to me.”

Money raised goes right back to the school. This year’s goal is to replace decade-old computers, supply each teacher with a SMART board and provide tutors.

Principal Sharyn VonCannon sold tickets for the barbecue when she was a Unionville student. Prizes for ticket sales included popcorn and the chance to watch a cartoon — “Popeye” or maybe “Speed Racer.” VonCannon’s mother sold the very first tickets — $1 — as a kindergartener.

Students who sell more than 100 tickets this year will go bowling.

VonCannon said the fundraiser is “almost like an unwritten holiday. Everybody knows, the first Friday in November. ... People save their vacation days for it.”

This year’s guest list includes several state dignitaries. U.S. Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., will be there, and N.C. Superintendent of Public Instruction June Atkinson is rearranging her schedule to drop by. School officials expect between 12,000 and 15,000 visitors.

Many of the regulars are lifelong Unionville residents. VonCannon called the event a “family reunion.”

“You can’t find a better school,” volunteer Jerry Price said. Price has volunteered for more than 30 years, most recently on the “stew crew.” He took Don Morgan’s place as key organizer a few years ago when Morgan died after 50 years of service.

VonCannon said it is a challenge to replace aging committee chairmen and hard for young families to understand the fundraiser’s significance.

“It’s not just a barbecue; it’s the barbecue,” she said.

Thankfully, Price said, there are new volunteers each year. He hopes they will stick with it in future years.

Like many other volunteers, Price attended Unionville as a child and remembers when it was still a high school. Once Piedmont High School was built, Unionville graduated its last senior class in 1960.

Before VonCannon, Fred High served as principal for 25 years. Now 78, High will get in line once again for a plate of barbecue and a bowl of Brunswick stew.

“It has gotten huge,” High said, adding that the barbecue still tastes the way it did his first year in 1963. He remembers when volunteers made 1,600 gallons of Brunswick stew one year and “we thought that was all they could do.”

J. Carlyle Trull, who helped organize the first barbecue in 1949, is credited with the stew’s secret recipe. In an interview with the Union Observer in October 1985, Trull joked that he hides his age just as he hides his recipe, but was one of the last surviving founders at the time of publication.

In the interview, Trull said he and five others visited the Berryhill School in Charlotte to see how it ran its barbecue fundraiser. Unionville held its own later that year.

“They didn’t seem to think that we were there to find out just how they did things,” he told the interviewer, “but later we used it to a good advantage.”

High once read Trull’s recipe but said he can’t remember what goes in it. He does, however, remember some live chickens brought in one year as an ingredient.

Although he is a newcomer to the school, it isn’t the first time Lynip has tested the barbecue. Lynip previously worked at Walter Bickett Elementary, where former principal Bill Cook tallied the orders for his staff. Now the principal of Marvin Ridge High, Cook is still on the list.

“Once Unionville, always Unionville,” Lynip said.

Like other administrators, Lynip is running on little sleep this week. Coals were lit at midnight, and barbecue will cook for much of the day. It will then be chopped, seasoned and packaged. Leftovers are rare, VonCannon said, but some were frozen and sold last year.

Even volunteer firemen and, this year, Piedmont High students, pitch in to stir and serve. Unionville Mayor Larry Simpson directs traffic.

“Teachers open their windows just so they can smell it cooking,” VonCannon said. School goes on as usual, and math teachers tie the barbecue into their lessons.

Thirty-six years after his first time at the fundraiser, Trull said he is glad Unionville has such a great way to raise money for the school. “That’s what it’s all about, you know.”

Tickets are $8 for eat-in or carry-out. Unionville Elementary is located at 4511 Unionville Road.

Barbecue by the Numbers

Months of planning ... 4

Loads of hickory firewood ... 11

Enthusiastic staff members ... 130

Gallons of barbecue sauce ... 200

Gallons of vinegar slaw ... 500

Volunteers ... 800

Gallons of Brunswick stew ... 2,200

Hamburger buns ... 4,140

Slices of bread ... 11,160

Pounds of Boston butts ... 14,500

Tickets to sell ... 19,000

Pulling off the largest school-sponsored barbecue in North Carolina ... priceless

Don't forget dessert

The Unionville barbecue includes 300 desserts for eat-in visitors to choose from. Principal Sharyn VonCannon said the sour cream coconut and Hershey bar cakes are two of the most requested. Cakes, pies and other desserts can be purchased by the slice or bought whole.

SOUR CREAM COCONUT CAKE

by Patsy Price

1 package white cake mix

2 cups sugar

16 oz. Cool Whip

2 (6 oz.) frozen coconut, thawed

2 cups (16 oz.) sour cream

Bake white cake as directed in two 9-inch round cake pans. Cool completely and split layers into halves using a piece of thread. Mix coconut, sour cream and sugar in a large bowl, reserving half a cup of the cocunut mixture. Spread the coconut mixture between all layers of the cake, then mix the reserved coconut mixture with Cool Whip. Spread the remaining mixture over the top and sides of the cake. Cover and chill in the refrigerator for three days before serving.

HERSHEY BAR CAKE

by Lisa Rushing

1 German chocolate cake mix

1 (3.4 oz.) Jell-O instant vanilla pudding

1 1/2 cups milk

1/4 cup oil

3 eggs

Mix all ingredients well. Grease and flour a 9-by-13 pan or three round cake pans. Bake as directed. Cool completely. If baking in a 9-by-13 pan, cut the cake in half horizontally so there are two layers.

For frosting:

1 (8 oz.) softened cream cheese

12 oz. Cool Whip, thawed

6 Hershey bars, grated (reserve one bar for the top of the cake)

2 cups powdered sugar

Beat the cream cheese and powdered sugar until smooth. Stir in Cool Whip and five of the grated Hershey bars. Refrigerate until the frosting thickens. Frost between the layers and on top. Put the remaining Hershey bar on top of the frosting. Refrigerate.