For nearly 50 years, the Pigeon Races have been a staple of the town of Cordova, and for over 20 years, Al Kimminau has provided a quality lunch for the people that come by for the festivities.
“I own the (meat) locker here in town and we provide the meat for the lunch,” Kimminau said.
With the exception of one year when they decided to do chicken, he has always served pork and beef to the attendees of the festival, a decision that has served very well.
“The public loves it. We almost always run out of food,” volunteer Lance Larsen said.
While the lunch always serves as a free will offering, they do manage to raise money to help the city out.
“We definitely cover our expenses and then we hope to make a little more,” Larsen said. “We’ve helped with improvements in the park, improvements to the (community) building and we normally do alright.”
While there is not currently a bonafide plan for what the money will go towards, there are plenty of ideas on how the community could be improved.
“We need to work on the floor here, we need to paint our windmill, we need to work on things in the park. I think that’s where it will go,” Larsen said.
Like many good things though, Kimminau’s time serving will come to an end soon as he as well as many other volunteers will be retiring after next year's celebration.
“It’s a group thing here, my wife (and Lance’s wife help), she’s over collecting tickets, my wife is helping out judging cars, and 50 (years of the celebration) is a good year to stop,” Kimminau said.
While next year will be the final year with the current group helping with the lunch amongst other events, they hope that the celebration carries on.
“We may not have another Pigeon Race, but we’re hoping another younger crew comes in, maybe they'll have new ideas. Maybe they’ll do something else, but we’re going to go through 50 and have a big party next year,” Larsen said.
