Jumbo Ears being passed on to new hands

By Alejandra Pulido-Guzman - Lethbridge Herald on August 27, 2022.

Herald photo by Alejandra Pulido-Guzman Tim Shields, former Jumbo Ears booth committee chairman, helps a customer during Whoop-Up Days Thursday afternoon at the Lethbridge and District Exhibition grounds.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDapulido@lethbridgeherald.com

A booth that has been part of Whoop-Up Days for decades, has changed ownership and this year is being used as a fundraiser for the Lethbridge Longhorns.

Previously owned and operated by the Church of Jesus Christ and Latter Day Saints, the Jumbo Ears booth began its early operation in the mid 1960’s according to former committee chairman of the Jumbo Ears booth, Tim Shields.

He said they originally operated side by side with the Knights of Columbus selling hot dogs, hamburgers, corn on the cob, as well as fish and chips but that all changed in the 1980’s.

“In the mid 80’s the church introduced a product called jumbo ears, which is a deep-fried dough topped with butter and cinnamon sugar. They learned that it was a popular item, discontinuing all other menu items, other than pop and the jumbo ears. During the rest of the time, it was a successful operation which evolved over the next 40 years,” said Shields.

He said that even though the operation was very successful and running the booth allowed them to help many generations of Scouts through the church as with the funds raised through it, they were able to help families pay the registration fees and acquire equipment necessary for camps, in 2021 the church decided they will no longer do fundraising that involves food preparation or the selling of food, so as a result the church approached Lethbridge and District Exhibition and informed them of their decision.

“The Lethbridge Exhibition knowing that it was a product that has been important to Whoop-Up Days has taken the booth over, and with our help we have been able to work with other non-for-profit organizations, primarily the Lethbridge Longhorns (baseball academy) who are manning the booth and Lethbridge Exhibition themselves being a non-for-profit organization will be the future operators of the jumbo ears booth,” said Shields.

He said they donated all of the equipment and infrastructure that they had built over the years to the Lethbridge Exhibition. They did own the structure itself, including the exhausted system, but all the other equipment was paid for and put into the booth by the church, which was fully renovated in 2016.

“Everything works pretty good. There is a significant dollar value to that equipment, but we’ve had such a long-term relationship with exhibition that was important that it stays here with the community,” said Shields.

This year he volunteered to help members of the Lethbridge Longhorns and their families learn how to run the booth and prepare the famous jumbo ears, which was very helpful according to Lethbridge Longhorn member and booth volunteer Chance Wheatley.

“For the most part it’s our players that are volunteering, they are in there cooking up the dough and frying and putting all the spices on, and we’ve had a big help from parents as well,” said Wheatley.

He said Shields walked them through the process from start to finish and was very helpful.

Wheatley said that running the booth at Whoop-Days was pretty slow in the first day but it became progressively busier in day two and three.

“First day was pretty slow and we just kind of get spurts of you know 20 to 30 minutes of being really busy and other than that it was pretty slow, but these last few days we’ve been steady busy all day,” said Wheatley.

He said funds raised through the Jumbo Ears booth will go towards try to keep the cost down

for parents enrolling their children in baseball with the Lethbridge Longhorns.

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