Sweet and spicy fun'raising

The Whiting School of Engineering hosted a Sweet & Spicy Chili Cook-Off & Bake-Off on Wednesday, Nov. 29, to support its annual fundraising campaign for United Way of Central Maryland.

Nearly 100 faculty, staff, and students gathered in Homewood's Glass Pavilion to enjoy and choose the winning recipes among traditional and white chicken chilis, as well as cookies, cakes, and puddings. There were two winners for each category—judges' choice and people's choice.

Cook-Off winners:

• Jerrell Bratcher, senior special events coordinator, Marketing and Communications—Bomb Diggity Bracher Chili (judges' choice)
• Ben Ortiz-Colon, senior development coordinator, Donor Engagement—Ben's CheesyMeatyCheesyMeatyCheesy Chili (people's choice)

Bake-Off winners:

• Robin Smith, senior writer, Development and Alumni Relations—Pumpkin Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting (judges' choice)
• Brandi Zeberlein, multimedia technician, Center for Learning Design and Technology—Pumpkin Cheese Cake Bars (people's choice)

The event was sponsored by the Johns Hopkins Federal Credit Union, which provided four of the five judges; the fifth was Lawanda Johnson of Johns Hopkins Government, Community, and Economic Partnerships and the organizer of this year's universitywide United Way campaign. Judges' choice winners received gift baskets donated by the Johns Hopkins University Bookstore, and people's choice winners received Whiting swag bags provided by WSE's offices of Development and Alumni Relations and of Marketing and Communications.

Tickets were $15 and included tastings, lunch catered by Hopkins Dining, and two raffle tickets for donated prizes. Additional raffle tickets were $1 each. Taking home the prizes were:

• Geiger gift basket: Shuyue Bian, graduate student, Materials Science and Engineering
• Geiger baking set: Naseer Shahid, undergraduate, Neuroscience
• $100 Amazon gift card: Abe Hou, undergraduate, Computer Science
• $100 Amazon gift card: Yolanda Fraction, senior organization development consultant, Talent Management
• $100 Visa gift card: Emmett Springer, graduate student, Civil and Systems Engineering
• $100 Visa gift card: Allison Corbett, senior development officer, Development and Alumni Relations
• Patagonia WSE fleece: Sandra Altman, associate director of admissions, Engineering for Professionals
• Four Capitals tickets: Paul Huckett, interim associate dean, Lifelong Learning

If you missed the event, which brought in $1,444, it's not too late to donate. The annual universitywide campaign runs through Friday, Dec. 22. WSE has to date raised $39,000.08 of its campaign goal of $54,000.