Events
"Hogs 'n' Hens for Hope" BBQ Cook-off & Festival
Hogs ‘n’ Hens for Hope was the first official fundraising event sponsored by the Wallace, North Carolina chapter of Lazarex Cancer Foundation. Erin Miller VanGorder is the chapter president and a board member for Lazarex. She and Holly Webster, also a Lazarex board member, co-chaired for this event. Learn more about the Lazarex NC chapter
The first Hogs ‘n’ Hens for Hope fundraiser was held on October 17th at the Duplin County Events Center in Kenansville, NC. There were many components to this event: a Trike-a-thon parade; the BBQ Cook-off; the motorcycle ride for a “Life Time; the festival with rides, attractions, activities, arts & crafts, specialty products, live & silent auctions, BBQ & foods, wine & beer gardens, live music and demonstrations throughout the day.
The Lazarex stage saw a night full of great tunes and dancing
The Trike-a-thon Parade
We have to say something about this delightful fundraiser cooked up by LuAnn Rivenbark who works with preschool children and seems to know A LOT of people in Wallace, NC and surrounding areas. Picture 20 or so preschoolers on tricked out, decorated tricycles, big wheels and wagons riding in a parade up and down the sidewalks of Main Street, Wallace stopping at local businesses to pick up donation boxes for Lazarex Cancer Foundation. At times they even stopped traffic! It was heartwarming and funny. These children rode a long time, with enthusiasm, and it seemed the adults with them were the ones who needed to rest when we stopped at the Art of Hope gallery for a raffle and lunch for the kids. Hope Smith, gallery owner & artist, donated one of her original paintings for the raffle. The Trike-a thon and raffle raised a total of $1,000.00.
Reverend LuAnn Rivenbark, Trike-a-thon Organizer, leads tricyclists and supporters along Main Street, Wallace NC to raise funds for Lazarex Cancer Foundation.
View Trike-a-thon Photo Gallery
The Cook-off and Festival
The BBQ cook-off and judging process was fascinating to observe (who knew!). It was a chilly night, spirits were high, and there was great camaraderie among the teams. The hogs were distributed and the cook-off “officially” started at 9:00 pm Friday evening. The judging took place Saturday morning with a lot of crackling, hissing, steam and smoke that made us all very hungry! The ruckus that ensued of 11 teams chopping hogs for BBQ was, well, loud but a sign of good things to come!
It truly did “take a village” to pull this off. We had an incredible outpouring of volunteers and local sponsors for every facet of Hogs ‘n’ Hens. Friends and family came from near and far. Doors opened at 10:00am and we were ready! It was a great day. It was cold in the morning but it didn’t rain and the sun blessed us in the afternoon. Thirty or so riders departed in the morning on the Motorcycle Ride for a “Life Time” to raise funds for Lazarex. The air was pungent with the cookin’ smells of BBQ pork and chicken. The clogging and duck & goose calling were lively, unexpectedly impressive and very well executed. It was amazing to observe the process of artist/woodcarver Marlin Miller turning sections of a cedar log into an eagle and a seahorse with a chainsaw, finished and ready for the fierce competition of the live auction! As impressive was watching Mark Michael turn cast off chunks of cedar into stunning hand tooled pens, also for auction. Alice Brown was a force of nature as the auctioneer –she kept the auction lively, entertaining and lucrative! Kids & adults alike enjoyed the crazy rides & attractions like the sticky Velcro Wall and the slippery Mechanical Bull! Live music performed by local NC bands Rich Emily, Machine Gun Band, EchoCode and Aaron LaFalce was outstanding and had people on their feet, dancing into the night. All in all we raised $24,000 for which we are grateful and we look forward to an even better turn out next year!
October 19, 2009: Read about the Hogs n' Hens event in the Duplin Times
October 19, 2009: Read about Lazarex and some of the entertainment we had at Hogs 'n' Hens in the Sun Herald
