Opelika hosts ‘Burgers for Bubba’ in honor of fallen firefighter medic

OPELIKA, Ala. (WTVM) - The City of Opelika, Opelika Police Department, and Opelika Power Services, invited the community to Municipal Park for the annual Summer in the Park yesterday. All benefitting the United Way of Lee County.

The annual summer in the park kicked off The City of Opelika fundraisers that benefit the United Way of Lee County.

For the fifth year, the theme is “Burgers for Bubba” in memory of the 27-year-old fire firefighter medic who passed away in July of this year.

OPD community relations director Allison Duke says Sorenson always brought life to the fundraiser.

“When you thought about this event, you thought about this competition, you thought about bubba, so we knew it wouldn’t be the same to kind of move forward and do a competition this year, so we gave Opelika Fire the year off. Opelika Power stepped in for us and they joined Opelika Police and we’ve been grilling two types of burgers today.” said Duke.

Those burgers were all sold out by 12:30 p.m. The police were in charge of the unicorn burger, and Opelika Power Services were on the grill for the strongman burger.

Sorenson’s brother Alexander says it feels good to know Burgers for Bubba is all for honoring his little brother.

“If you didn’t know, he’s a big dude and he likes to eat a lot so anything to do with food he was all about and anything to do with helping the community out was his gig. So he loved it. I mean just being around everybody and having fun and watching all the kids run around makes you smile.” said Alexander.

The fun activities like rides on the Rocky Brook Rocket and face painting helped with the event’s vision to embody the way Bubba loved to always have a great time.

“Out there doing whatever he wanted. Big personality to match his big physical body. Always doing whatever he wanted and having fun laughing and dancing and singing. Just having a good time being the loud voice and everybody saw the whole time.” Alexander.

The reward for coming out and supporting the cause is not only to enjoy the unicorn or strongman burgers, but to know the proceeds will support 20 different community organizations in Lee County.

Burgers for Bubba raised more than 6 thousand dollars in 4 hours, which is a great addition towards the city’s goal of 50 thousand dollars to campaign yearly for the United Way of Lee County.

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