CCU title pays off in ‘wonderful’ way for chamber, Boys and Girls Club

For some, victory tastes sweet.

For Myrtle Beach, “sweet” wasn’t quite the right adjective.

“Victory tastes wonderful, especially when Tucson is cooking,” said Brad Dean, president and CEO of the Myrtle Beach Chamber of Commerce.

Large pans of food were warming in a corner of a large conference room in building 600 at the Horry Georgetown Technical College’s Grand Strand campus on Tuesday.

Dean and the VisitMyrtleBeach.com staff milled around before sitting down at the tables that were spread out across the room.

Dean had made a bet with Brent DeRaad, the President and CEO of Visit Tucson.

“We’re big supporters of Coastal Carolina University and when they made it to the College World Series we thought it was the perfect opportunity for a promotional wager,” said Dean. “So we reached out to our counterparts in Tucson, and laid down a wager. Whoever’s team would win the college world series, the other CVB (convention and visitor’s bureau) had to travel to their destination with a world-class chef and prepare an exquisite meal for the university and their CVB.”

Chef Ryan Clark from the PY Steakhouse in Tucson prepared the meal.

“I’m bringing some of our humble roots here, which is Sonoran Mexican food,” said Clark. “We’ve got everything from margaritas to tacos to guacamole, all the good stuff that we have as a culture. And I brought some tepary beans and cholla buds, cooking a little cactus today. And it’s been fun because I’m not only bringing that food up here, I’ve been able to check out some of the southern food that you guys have available.”

There was also a monetary component to the bet.

“One of the things we wanted to do in terms of the bet was to add a charitable component,” said DeRaad. “So what we agreed to was whoever lost had to write a $1,000 check to the Boys and Girls Club.”

Dione Buonto, the CEO and president of the Boys and Girls Club of the Grand Strand, said every dollar is important for their non-profit.

“We’re super excited because I just found out about the little wager last week when they called and invited me out here for lunch,” said Buonto, whose organization employs several CCU students as youth counselors.

“Not only am I going to eat a really great meal from Tucson, but they told me that the Tuscon Visitors Bureau was going to present us with a check for the local Boys and Girls Club so that’s super exciting for us to be a part of something that has to do with Coastal Carolina,” she said.

This story was originally published August 23, 2016 at 5:18 PM with the headline "CCU title pays off in ‘wonderful’ way for chamber, Boys and Girls Club."