A Perrysburg barbecue restaurant is spending Halloween weekend feeding its neighbors for a reason beyond the menu: Dickey’s Barbecue Pit in Perrysburg is hosting a three-day fundraiser, Friday, Oct. 30 through Sunday, Nov. 1, benefiting the family of Clay Township Police Department Sgt. Jacob Roesler, who was killed in a crash while responding to a call earlier this month, according to the restaurant’s announcement via Business Wire.
The fundraiser runs from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. each day at Dickey’s Barbecue Pit, 10413 Fremont Pike in Perrysburg, according to the announcement. Guests who visit during the three days support the fundraiser for Sgt. Roesler’s family, the restaurant said.
The Perrysburg restaurant is owned and operated by Steve Mowery, a U.S. Army combat veteran and local deputy sheriff, according to the announcement. That dual role — restaurateur and fellow law enforcement officer — sits at the center of why the restaurant took the fundraiser on.
“Being in law enforcement and wearing the badge, the people you serve alongside become more than coworkers. It is a brotherhood and sisterhood that goes beyond the badge,” Mowery said in Dickey’s announcement via Business Wire. “You look out for each other, you show up for each other, and when tragedy strikes, you feel it together.”
Mowery said in the announcement that nothing can fill the space Sgt. Roesler leaves behind, but the community can show his family it does not have to face the days ahead alone. “We’re proud to use barbecue to help bring people together in Jacob’s honor,” Mowery said in the announcement. “And more than anything, we want his family to know that we will never forget him and we are here to support them.”
What we know — and what we’re still waiting on
What is confirmed from the restaurant’s announcement is the shape of the event: three days, Oct. 30 through Nov. 1, from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., at the Fremont Pike restaurant, with the effort benefiting Sgt. Roesler’s family. The announcement does not state a fundraising total or a percentage of sales, and no final amount had been announced as of Saturday. What the weekend represents is confirmed, though: a neighboring community’s business using its own dining room to carry part of a fallen officer’s family’s burden.
The fundraiser is one of several ways northwest Ohio has marked service and loss this fall. In Hancock County, the University of Findlay will honor veterans Nov. 11 at its Veterans Honor Wall ceremony, and in Toledo, the Toledo Museum of Art and Oak Harbor’s birding week recently won ‘coolest’ Great Lakes honors — reminders that the region’s good news often starts with neighbors showing up.
The weekend also gives the community a concrete way to help. There is no ticket, no program and no ceremony to attend: the announcement simply invites guests to visit the restaurant during regular hours, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., on any of the three days, and take part by showing up. For a family in the first weeks of grief, that kind of ordinary, open-door support — a dining room full of neighbors — is the point, in the restaurant’s own telling.
Dickey’s Barbecue Restaurants, founded in 1941 by World War I veteran Travis Dickey, describes itself in the announcement as the world’s largest barbecue concept, serving slow-smoked meats and home-style sides for dine-in, drive-thru at select locations and pick-up. The Perrysburg location’s fundraiser follows that founding thread — a veteran-founded company, a veteran and deputy running the local restaurant, and a community meal in honor of an officer who died answering a call.
Sgt. Roesler served with the Clay Township Police Department, and he was killed in a crash while responding to a call earlier this month, according to the restaurant’s announcement. The fundraiser does not attempt to sum up that loss; it answers it the way small communities across Ohio most often do, by feeding people and passing the support along to the family he leaves behind.
What happens next is simple and close at hand: the fundraiser continues through Sunday, Nov. 1, ending at 9 p.m. Anyone who wants to take part can visit the restaurant at 10413 Fremont Pike in Perrysburg during those hours. For Sgt. Roesler’s family, the weekend’s message, in the restaurant’s own framing, is that northwest Ohio has not forgotten him — and does not intend to.
Photo: Gatorfan252525, CC BY-SA