The smell of smoked barbecue is almost synonymous with “good times” in the South, but Friday the smell was also a reminder of a good cause.
At the Oktibbeha County Co-op Friday, Golden Triangle residents cooked pork shoulders and Boston butts, made barbecue plates and collected donations for co-op employee and long-time area resident Porter Swann, who was diagnosed with lung cancer in March 2010.
They raised more than $13,000 from the sale of more than 850 barbecue plates and T-shirts with the jovial Swann”s “isms.”
“He”s very quick-witted and can come up with anything to describe something,” daughter-in-law Tamra Swann said. “It”s pretty special what everyone was able to do today.”
Swann grew up in Noxubee County and received his animal science degree from Mississippi State University in 1961. He”s been a dairy farmer and has worked at the co-op for eight years.
In that time, Swann has become a fixture in the community, his supporters said.
“The donations poured in from our community,” said Terri Tomlinson, who works with Swann at the Co-op and was a co-organizer of the fundraiser. “Within a week and a half, we had 90 percent of everything we needed donated to us. Today has been amazing. The number of people that have shown up has been fabulous. We”re very blessed and so is Mr. Porter.”
Fundraiser co-organizer Robin Pigg, whose daughter, Janice, plays soccer with Swann”s granddaughter, Rebecca, at Starkville Academy, said the original goal was to raise $2,000. But once the donations started rolling in and people signed up to volunteer, they quickly eclipsed that goal.
Numerous business like Wal-Mart and Gulf States pre-ordered plates, which accounted for 575 of 865 total plates sold. Once lunch-time hit, she didn”t expect two lines of people that stretched into the parking lot.
“At 11 o”clock, it got pretty crazy,” Pigg said. “We ran out of bread twice; we ran out of plates. People were patient, though.”
Other donations came from selling pre-cooked Boston Butts and baked goods. Also, a stained-glass piece of art will be raffled off Aug. 15. Tickets are $10 each.
The donations of food will also benefit the homeless, as the extra barbecue and sides will go to the Casserole Kitchen, a local ministerial association that feeds the homeless on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.
“The entire family is truly humbled by the generosity of not only the people who purchased the plates and Boston butts, but also those who have donated hours of time, supplies, gifts and everything,” Porter Swann said. “It was just an amazing response and so typical of the Golden Triangle area.”
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