I figured I’d hold my own against Doug Brown, but when reports of an Obby Khan sighting in the parking lot started to come in, I knew I was in trouble.

So a pair of Browns, Khan, TSN Radio 1290 host and Winnipeg Free Press columnist Gary Lawless, Hot 103 personalities Adam West and Lloyd the Intern, as well as CityTV chef Rob Thomas took to the stage at the Warsaw Poland pavilion in St. Boniface on Aug. 7 to take part in the first annual perogy-eating contest to raise both funds and awareness of Project Echo, a Winnipeg non-profit.

Project Echo’s goal is to improve the lives of Winnipeggers through fundraising and volunteerism. Its efforts go beyond this one-off perogy-eating contest. Previous projects have included the Winnipeg Summer Slapshot Hockey Tournament, Sam’s Christmas and Bench Press for Breast Cancer.

The group recently teamed up with Elite Performance to offer a pair of weekly movement and light exercise sessions at Siloam Mission in the inner city.

"We were pleased to able to offer Winnipeggers the opportunity to stay fit and active and we are thrilled to collaborate with Siloam and Elite," says Project Echo development co-ordinator Troy Westwood, a former member of the Blue Bombers.

Back to the food faceoff.  After judges admonished and penalized Lawless for jumping the gun and digging into the pierogi’s too early, the horn sounded and we were off.

We all brought our appetites. The winner would be determined by who could eat the most perogies in three minutes. Warsaw Poland mascot Peter the Perogy was there to cheer us on while a packed pavilion screamed at us to keep filling our faces. Some competitors used two hands while others were more civilized and used a fork.  Water was available for all the competitors to help the food slide down our gullets a little easier.

Still, these things can be a little dry. After three minutes and countless (actually nine for me) perogies later, Khan was declared the runaway winner with 19 perogies consumed.

"You could see every competitor’s face go flush at about the two and a half perogy mark," said one gleeful audience member after the event.

And we even got to keep our bibs. Community, culture and perogies — it doesn’t get any better than that.

For more information, visit www.project-echo.com

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