Rene Louapre and Becker Hall had no idea what they were getting into when they decided
to barbeque a whole pig at a keg party back in 2009. The amateur grillers didn’t start smoking the meat until well into the morning, after several hours of wrestling the deboned hog onto a spit. The wind wasn’t helping, either -- they eventually resorted to starting the fire inside a rented van. There was screaming, cursing, and multiple trips to the hardware store. Their friends were getting restless. And hungry.
But through it all, Louapre and Hall remained determined. The pig, donated by local meatery Cochon Butcher, wasn’t just the centerpiece of that evening’s meal; it was the driving force behind a project to help the family of a six-year-old boy in the community, Ben Sarrat, Jr., who had been diagnosed with pediatric brain cancer. Even though the meal took forever to cook (the duo was hacking off chunks of meat as they crossed into the safe temperature zone), Louapre, Hall, and more than 200 of their neighborhood friends assembled to help a family going through the crisis of a terminally ill child.
They drank beers, ate questionable pork, and raised about $7,000. And that’s how the first Hogs for the Cause went down. https://www.thrillist.com/eat/nation/hogs-for-the-cause/food-and-drink
