Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
STAFF WRITER
To all those looking for a bit of the San Francisco Bay Area here in Portales, look no further than this Friday’s night’s annual Crab Fest, held at the YAM Theater.
For the sixth time, the Eastern New Mexico University’s Greyhound Club will be hosting this all-you-can-eat crab dinner for $35 a plate.
File photo
Eastern New Mexico University athletic students served a full and rowdy house crab dinners Friday night in 2015 for their annual fundraiser at the Yam Theatre.
Shelby Kirkes, the marketing and events manager of ENMU Athletics, has been involved in four of the Crab Fests, including the upcoming one.
Typically, all of the proceeds of this event have gone toward the ENMU general athletic scholarship fund, but this year Kirkes noted a slight change in where the money will go.
“This year, 75 percent goes to our athletic general scholarship fund. That distributes between specific athletes, depending on how each coach wants to hand out the scholarship money,” Kirkes said. “This is our first year doing this, but 25 percent of our proceeds go to the Make-A-Wish Foundation. A lot of other schools in our conference have donated to the Make-A-Wish Foundation and we hadn’t yet. We decided to do it this year. This is also a donation to the general Make-A-Wish Foundation, not any specific wish.”
It’s not like the ENMU student-athletes simply collect the proceeds, as each team sends representatives to help out in different capacities for the event.
ENMU senior wide receiver Adrian Horton will be one of the football players on valet detail for the event.
“It’s pretty fun. We get to see everybody come on in,” Horton said. “We have eight or ten guys who will valet the cars and then another group comes for the next shift. The football team has always done the valet parking. I think they want to keep us as far away from the food as possible.”
Although Horton has been a part of the valet crew for the last several seasons, the players who help with Crab Fest are typically different.
“The coaches pick the guys. It’s kind of random depending on the coach,” the Texas native said. “I’ve done it the last couple of years. So hopefully I’ll get everything right this time.”
Junior defender Breanna Atencio will be one of the many women’s soccer players working as both wait staff and busing tables throughout the night. This is her third year as part of Crab Fest.
“We usually come in and bus the tables when everyone’s done eating,” Atencio said. “Last year we also made sure everyone had the drinks they needed and we also went around and talked to everybody. It’s pretty fun.”
For Atencio, this is an event she always enjoys being a part of because it allows the ENMU athletes to interact with members of the Portales community they might not always see.
“A lot of boosters come. A lot of families come,” the Albuquerque native said. “It’s a fun way to be around this small, tight-knit community. We like getting out there and introducing ourselves because it gets more people to come out and watch your games. I just think it’s a great thing that the university does every year.”
As for the crabs themselves, like they’ve done the previous times, Kirkes said the crabs are ordered out of San Francisco, California, and flown in the day of the event. Kirkes also said that the first seating, which is from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. is sold out. Kirkes estimates about 30 seats are still available for the second seating which begins at 8 p.m.