On Sept. 26, bring your appetite and instrument to Jim Thorpe for The Dimmick Memorial Library's first Chili Cook-Off.

The Friends of the Dimmick Memorial Library are sponsoring the evening of local cooks and restaurant chefs going head to head at FLOW, Food-Art-Drink."We have 11 contestants already," said Janet Hermann, president of the Friends of Dimmick Memorial Library."There will be prizes for the top three winners," she said.The evening will include a basket-full of liquor raffle and entertainment brought by Free Range Folk band members Amber and Josh Finsel. The couple will host an open mic and a chance to perform for the crowd."The owners of FLOW donated the space. This is the second event there. They've been very helpful," Hermann said."We will also have chili and cornbread not in the contest. There will be tons of chili, there are six volunteers just contributing it to the event," she said.Fruit and vegetable trays and cookies will also be on the menu for the evening along with a cash donation bar.Friends organization volunteer Karen Bushnell said the idea for the cook-off came about after she attended a Bowmanstown event that benefited the fire company."It was my first time at a chili cook-off and it looked like something easy to do from a distance," she said.The biggest challenge of organizing the fun fundraiser, Hermann said, was getting volunteers involved."We have a large group but only a small number contribute on a regular basis."Last year's fundraiser funds reached $3,000 to be used to replace the doors on the historic building."This year we are looking to raise thousands and thousands," Hermann said.Funds raised from the event will be put into the future Milton Dimmick Memorial room located in the top of the Broadway building."We are setting up a local historical reading room upstairs and will name it after Milton. We will have our local history and newspaper collections up there," said Library Director Rachel Hoff.Hermann described the attic room as, "Packed with bookcases and books. We've done a lot of work to organize it. It's an interesting room.""What it needs is air conditioning and heating so we can do work in that room year-round and maintain the collection in a better environment," Hoff said.She said the room hosts one of the oldest collections in the county."We are one of the oldest public libraries in the area so it's an old collection. It survived the fire in 1979 when much of the library didn't," she said."They had to do a major rebuild but the collection survived, but most hasn't been cataloged so it hasn't been available to the public. The goal is to have everything in that room pertinent to local history. There are probably close to 1,000 books."Hoff said that all the funds raised by the Friends organization will be designated to the renovation of the room until it is completed."My hope is we could help with other collections in town after we get this room fixed up. Where preservation starts is in the environment and also inventory and knowing what you have," she said."All the money raised goes to the library, every single penny," Bushnell said."I think the cook-off is fantastic. The last FLOW event generated $3,000. We are looking to meet or exceed that," Hoff said.The fundraiser will take place at 268 West Broadway in Jim Thorpe at FLOW Food-Art-Drink building from 5:30 to 10 p.m. Admission to the event is $10, where attendees will receive two vote tickets and be able to purchase additional votes and tickets for the basket raffle.