Trailer Park Boy sits down to eat for Burger Challenge

The third annual Golden Burger Challenge had a famous burger lover as a special guest judge.

Patrick Roach, who played Randy in the Trailer Park Boys, sat down at Diner on Six Thursday, Oct. 19, to chow down on some burgers.

“It makes me feel pretty honoured that I would be asked to come right here to beautiful Vernon and judge these wonderful, wonderful cheeseburgers and sides,” Roach, in character as Randy complete with no shirt, said between bites.

“It’s unbelievable. I never thought I would get this many free cheeseburgers. I thought I would have to work for these burgers but it’s great, and it’s for a great charity.”

The Golden Burger Challenge is in support of the North Okanagan Community Life Society (NOCLS), which supports people with disabilities, and helps families with children with disabilities be a little more independent.

“So they get the right to choose what they want to do and their staff and so forth. All the funding that we do goes towards what they need,” Celenka Krawczyk, fundraising and event coordinator for NOCLS, said.

From each burger sold as part of the competition, $5 of the profits would be donated to the cause.

The previous year’s Golden Burger event brought in about $20,000 for NOCLS, and Krawczyk said they hope to generate around $30,000 this year.

Krawczyk added she was very grateful that Roach was coming to Vernon and agreed to be a guest judge for the competition.

“[Roach] was just so stoked to help us out. He’s really great with fundraising and helping locally and stuff like that,” Krawczyk said.

New to this year’s competition is the Burger Passport, which people can receive by making a donation to NOCLS and fill out by visiting the participating restaurants to get a stamp and be entered into a prize draw.

The restaurants participating in the 2023 Golden Burger Challenge are Sir Winston’s, Mr. Mikes, The Kal, The Longhorn Pub, Diner on Six, The Roster Sport Club Bar & Grill, Match Eatery & Public House, Namaste, and Bourbon Street Bar & Grill.

Randy is known to have a love for cheeseburgers, and in the show helps run the Dirty Burger food truck, but he said the Burger Challenge entries were superior.

“I hate to say it, but I think [the burgers in Vernon] are better than the Dirty Burger. We made a pretty good Dirty Burger but there’s something about the sauces, the presentations,” Roach remarked.

Along with judging burgers, Roach is in Vernon as part of his Cheeseburger Picnic tour. He will be putting on a show at Status Nightclub Friday, Oct. 20.

“We’ve done seven shows in a row, and today, on our day off, we’re tasting burgers, which is wonderful, and we have seven left,” Roach said.

“What we do is we play some games, sing some songs, tell jokes, have some laughs, and there better be some cheeseburgers because it can’t be a cheeseburger picnic without cheeseburgers.”

Roach used to tour with John Dunsworth, who played the character Jim Lahey, until he passed away in 2017. Roach said while it has been “a little more lonely without my pal,” he was adamant Dunsworth would have been proud of him getting out and having a fun time with fans.

Trailer Park Boys ran for 12 seasons on Showcase and Netflix, ending in 2018.