The “other” wild game dinner is still on

JEFF B. FLINN Managing Editor
Today, 05:00 AM

Kendall County Junior Livestock Association’s Wild Game Dinner set for Oct. 17

The “other” wild game dinner will go on, according to Chairwoman Reagan Harris.

The phones of Harris and other Kendall County Junior Livestock Association’s Wild Game Dinner organizers rang off the hook last week when it was announced the 2026 Hill Country Wild Game Charity Dinner — hosted by St. John Lutheran Church, and held annually in April — would be its final dinner.

“We got a barrage of calls from people panicking that our event had been cancelled,” Harrris said. “We just told them, ‘No, that’s not ‘our’ wild game dinner.’” Harris and her team operate the other, similarly named event — the 2026 Kendall County Junior Livestock Association’s Wild Game Dinner.

The silent auction table stretches across the back of the Youth Agriculture and Equestrian Center during the Kendall County Junior Livestock Association’s Wild Game Dinner. Courtesy photo

Tickets went on sale Friday and the event is set for Oct. 17, Harris said.

Harris’s co-chairs this year are Starla English and Kris Pressler, taking over for longtime dinner Chairwoman Becca Short.

The livestock association’s 2025 dinner raised $140,000 used for college scholarships for Kendall County youth, and helped fund projects at the Kendall County Junior Livestock auction and the Hill District Grandstand Sale, with the KCJLA among the top 10 buyers each year.

Monies also help fund capital improvements at the Kendall County Youth Agriculture & Equestrian Center in Comfort, Harris said.

Last year, she said, “we spent a significant portion of money on kids in the Hill Country that were affected by the flooding.”

The deluge of the July Fourth 2025 weekend caused massive devastation across the Hill Country.

The KCJLA also provided free dinner tickets to many of the area’s first responders who assisted with rescue and recovery efforts following the calamity.

The Wild Game Dinner features 20 teams of cooks preparing dishes featuring bison sliders, jalapeño bacon-wrapped quail poppers, crawfish pasta, axis guisada, venison fajitas, fried alligator, quail gumbo, wild boar ribs, shrimp etouffee, boudin egg rolls and bacon-wrapped stuffed wild hog loins.

This year’s event includes silent and live auctions, a gun raffle, cooler games and a golden ticket event. Tickets for the all-you-can-eat affair are $25 in advance or $30 at the gate.

“We got a barrage of calls from people panicking that our event had been cancelled.”