By Renee Larr

Wings Etc. in Fishers hosted a hot wing eating challenge Jan. 16 that pitted Fishers police officers against Fishers firefighters.

The team that could eat a basket of the hottest “wall sauce” flavored wings would win, receiving 10 percent of the day’s total sales to go toward supporting an organization of their choice.

“I just put out a request, and these are the guys that wanted to do it. Originally, I had a lot of takers when they thought it was any wing, but when I said it was the hottest a lot of people said no,” J.T. Wright, of the Fishers Police Department, said.

Wright had previously completed the restaurant’s “wall challenge,” eating 16 of the “wall sauce” wings with no other food or beverages, getting his picture on the wall. Fishers Wings Etc. owner Gloria Niedbalski approached Wright about creating a challenge between the groups to benefit the community.

“Quite a few of the firemen and policemen are regulars,” Niedbalski said. “After J.T. did it, we just wanted to do it for them to raise money for their groups.”

In the end, the Fishers Fire Department team won after eating 50 wings as a group in less than three minutes. One participant alone consumed 18 of those 50 wings. Total sales from the day were $4,334, with 10 percent going to the Hamilton County Fallen Firefighters Memorial Fund.

“Usually that amount of wings in that time is unheard of,” Niedbalski said. “With the ‘wall challenge’ you eat 16 wings with no time limit, but you can’t have anything to eat or drink during that time. In this case J.T. and I agreed to make it a team effort instead.”

Niedbalski said she hopes the challenge can become an annual occurrence growing with the community.