You have to hand it to Drew Cerza. He knows a good idea when he sees it.

At the risk of being immodest, I thought I had a decent one a couple of weeks ago: an annual, national Chicken Wings Festival in Buffalo. It was inspired by a fictional Buffalo wings festival in the current Farrelly brothers movie, "Osmosis Jones." The day the column appeared, more than a dozen people came up to me -- on the street, at lunch, wherever -- and said it ought to happen. Buffalo is renowned around the globe as the birthplace of the wing. Why not do something with it?

Cerza is.

He read the piece. He loved the idea. He decided to make it happen.

He has put up $25,000, contacted prospective national sponsors, hired a coordinator and targeted a date (a year from next month) for a two-day affair.

"I saw the article. It struck me as a great idea," said Cerza. "Within three days, I had the whole thing mapped out in my head.

"All I'm doing," he said, "is leveraging off one of our assets."

Maybe as much as anybody around here, Cerza has the know-how and connections to pull this off.

He is president of RMI Group, a national food promotions company based in Amherst. He does cause-based marketing, promoting companies that donate a percentage of sales to charity. RMI handles the Prince Pasta account and set up sponsorships with Kellogg, Purina and Welch's. RMI has sent corporate dollars to the Western New York Food Bank, drug prevention programs and Patriots quarterback Drew Bledsoe's parenting foundation.

"I thought we were a natural to do this," said Cerza. "We've got national food contacts and experience sponsoring festivals."

Cerza, 40, strikes you as a go-getter who's careful not to step on people's feet. He already lined up Pepsi as a sponsor and hired Carol Ann Roe, who runs the annual Taste of Buffalo. He has contacted, directly or through national food brokers, Tyson Poultry, Frank's Hot Sauce, Marie's Blue Cheese and other wing-related products for sponsorships. He'll have a proposal to show next month, in time for next year's corporate budgets.

There's already a logo and a Web site (www.buffalowing.com).

He's thinking national sponsorship money into six figures. He wants to set up local wings competitions in various cities, bringing the winners here for the national wing-off. He'll tie other events, maybe an antique car show, into the same weekend.

"Sometimes you've just gotta go for it, if it feels right in your gut," he said. "This did. I didn't have to sit around for a year thinking about it."

Cerza wants to make money off it, at least eventually, but will donate part of the take to the Food Bank. He's scouting sites in Buffalo and lined up help from the Convention and Visitors Bureau.

"The idea has a great deal of merit," said Mike Even of the CVB. "We think there's an opportunity to work with him on this."

Granted, a national wings festival isn't going to change the world, save Buffalo or help the Bills win the Super Bowl.

It will nail down the connection of the wing to the city. It will bring people here from out of town, get us some positive publicity, lend us a shot to civic pride and -- more than anything else -- give us another excuse to throw a party.

We'll finally take advantage of what has been there for the taking for nearly a half-century. That's how long ago the first batch of wings were cooked up at the Anchor Bar -- the still-standing, still-serving shrine.

This isn't some radical notion. Food festivals are a way of life across America. There are annual odes to the artichoke, pickle, tomato, asparagus; multiday affairs featuring contests, cookbooks, parades and pageants. About 130,000 people trekked to Gilroy, Calif., this summer to pay homage to the garlic clove. Think what the wing could do.

It has become an international snack staple. Nobody but chickens and Weight Watchers has anything against it. We have the natural claim.

It looks as if, finally, we're going to do something with it.

Drew Cerza says he's leveraging one of Buffalo Best assets.