MARQUETTE, Mich.—Northern Michigan University’s hospitality management program will host the Becky Blackburn Memorial Annual Chili Challenge from 3-5 p.m. Tuesday, March 29, at the Jacobetti Center. Professional and amateur cooks will prepare their best batches and the public is invited to sample the entries, along with bread, root beer and ice cream. The tasting is $3 for NMU students with ID and $5 for the general public.

NMU has hosted the chili challenge for more than a decade. This year’s event is named in memory of Blackburn. The young Marquette woman and NMU hospitality management student was killed in a car accident in February 2010.

“We were close—that’s how our program is—and I proposed the idea as a way to honor Becky,” said NMU student Scott Bousson. “We knew there would be a lot of expectations to live up to by attaching her name to it because she was really committed to the program and the hospitality industry.”

For more information, contact Chris Kibit at ckibit@nmu.edu or Becky Beaverson at rbeavers@nmu.edu.