DaytonDailyNews.com

DAYTON — With a name like Soupapalooza 2006, it's got to be good.

The first such event by that name, a fundraiser for the United Way of the Greater Dayton Area, turned into a cross-county municipal face-off Friday as workers from six cities — Dayton, Clayton, Vandalia, Miamisburg, Riverside and Kettering — vied to be declared the best soup or chili cooks in the area.

The judges, of course, were the ever-humble Leadbelly Boys and Girl, a trio (OK, occasionally a quartet) of Dayton Daily News eaters who write about junk food, fast food, greasy-spoons, mom-n-pops, county-fair fare and other stuff that tastes great but which is really bad for you.

The contenders: 15 teams of cooks, ranging from street crews to secretarial staffs, who helped raise $3,500 for United Way by offering up their own recipes for chili, soups and all manner of delicious stewy stuff. The idea came from Vandalia City Manager Jeff Hoagland, whose staff ran a chili cookoff to raise money for United Way last year and who wanted to expand the idea to his friends in other cities — especially Kettering, where he was previously an assistant city manager.

"I did a little trash-talking with Kettering," he said with a laugh. "That got it going."

The results were fabulous. As WDTN-TV's Jim Bucher emceed, the winners were announced:

First place: Dayton assistant city attorney Shanon Potts, for her Italian sausage tortellini wedding soup.

Second place: Kevin Casey of Vandalia's street department, for his creamy potato soup.

Third place: Vandalia police dispatcher Mindy Sawgrass for her beef-vegetable soup.

Quoth the Leadbellies:

Brother Jim: Kudos to Shanon for her wonderful soup. It made my heart sing.

Brother Ron: Surprisingly, none of the chilis was very hot — and we've had hot, hot chili. They were all, however, very good.

Sister Laura: You name it, somebody had it in their soup: Chocolate, cinnamon, lima beans and potatoes — all that and more. It came down to the wire, with the second-to-last soup hitting it out of the park. Some of the chilis were a bit sweet, but all were tasty, and all went better with cheese on top. But what doesn't?