Louisiana BBQ That’s Literally Saving Lives

All right, good morning everybody and welcome to the Overruled podcast brought to you by the Scott Vicknair Law Firm. I’m your host, David Vicknair. We have a great show with you today. With two of our friends, Robert Rosamond and Owen Saintmont. We’re here to talk about pigs and kids. Robert, Owen, thank you so much for being here. I just stole that from Robert, he just said it off-air and I was like, man, that’s an intro line.

So for those of you who don’t know, Robert, Owen, are the two people who primarily manage one of the Hogs for the Cause teams, Swine Krewe. For those of you who aren’t familiar with Hogs for the Cause and our Swine Krewe, Robert, can you tell everybody just a little bit about it?

Sure. Hogs for the Cause is the premier charity for pediatric brain cancer in the country. To date, they’ve given, I believe it’s around $15 million dollars between hospital programs, oncology units, direct grants to families with kids that have pediatric brain cancer. Their biggest fundraiser each year is Hogs, Hogs, they call it Hogs Fest now. But Hogs for the Cause, Hogs Fest, is a large-scale barbecue competition with over 90 teams, a weekend of music, and some serious barbecue competition. Last year, the festival raised around $5 million dollars.

Which is insane. It all. I think y’all have been on the show last year. We’re talking about how it started from a couple of guys cooking over at the fly. I, I like to say Owen said before the we start aired that it’s its Super Bowl. It’s like my favorite weekend of the year. Every year, it really is. It’s so much fun. I mean, how could you not have a good time drinking whiskey and eating?

Well, right. And I, I think it’s the way that it’s just it was set up, distinguishes it from a lot of other charities because the teams cover the overhead for the operations. So that every dollar that is spent by, a participant who comes or buys a ticket, and, every dollar they spend for the ticket, every dollar they spend for a beer, or a whiskey, or some food from any of the 90 teams, 100% of it goes to charity. And most charity, charitable organizations can’t say that. Right. But we do and we’re proud to be able to say that. We’re proud to be able to support that kind of model.

Yeah. Could y’all tell us a little bit about the, so y’all were telling me this story of this new team member before we jumped on the air about this family that reached out to him about the impact that his contribution had, like some stories, real stories, maybe without like disclosing the people, but like if you don’t feel comfortable, about how the money actually impacts actual families in our communities.

Yeah, so, one of the, one of the things that Hogs for the Cause does is these Hogs Houses. And basically, they’re long-term stay, apartments, for families whose kids are undergoing treatment for cancer or have other serious, serious issues that they need to be at the hospital. And their, these Hogs Houses are located directly next to care, the hospital. So the parents can basically stay with their kids while they’re undergoing treatment. And, you know, we have this new team member, Luke Derisco, who has just raised a tremendous amount of money for Hogs over the years. And so he’s got, he’s got the Luke and Linda Derisco Room at one of these Hogs Houses. And he actually texted us this morning, of a, a Facebook message that he just randomly received, this lady’s child was, not gaining weight. And so the child had to be, you know, placed in the nick, Nick you and be very, very close to the hospital. And the family needed to be very close to the hospital. And so they stayed in the Hogs House for a long time. And the mom was just searching Facebook, so saying, who is, who are, you know, Luke and Linda Derisco? And found Lisa on Facebook and just sent her a message of her story. And just said how appreciative they are, because they don’t charge for these, these accommodations at all. It’s totally free to the families.

It’s pretty amazing. And getting, since we’ve become friends over the years as we the firm has partnered with Swine Krewe. Yeah, I see that it’s amazing the time commitment y’all make. So like this new team member, I was looking at Swine Krewe’s page yesterday, has raised a crap ton of money for y’all so far before the event starts. I see, we’re talking about Andy Delaport, before we jump in the air, how much money Andy has raised y’all over the years each year. How much money, Robert? I looked at the day you had raised $27,000 and really, like, there’s so much time that all of y’all put in individually out of y’all busy lives into helping raise money. But I think, am I right that it all comes back to you can’t really monetize the feeling of a story like that, like the impact that you’re having on these individuals. Families that like actually makes you feel a certain way that you’re like, effort. I’ll devote as much time as I need to because this is meaningful and it matters, you know.

It really is. It’s, it becomes concrete when you meet some of these families that are, benefit from, these grants or from staying in one of the Hogs Houses, you know, Hogs for the Cause typically has a number of families with children, who are grantees, or otherwise associated with Hogs at the festival. Some of them are not likely to have great outcomes. Yeah. Some of them, are having miraculous outcomes. Yeah. And we get to interact with them at times. And it is, humbling, to say the least. But it makes you want to do it, even more intensely, every single year, when you really get a visceral, feeling for the benefits that every effort you’ve made, or are being bestowed upon these families. It’s, it’s humbling. And, you know, it’s, you know, I have children, Robert’s got children. You know, thankfully, they’ve never needed anything like this and have been healthy. But, it really puts it in perspective for you. When you think about, I don’t know, I grew up in, in the South here. So, you know, my grandmother used to always say, there but for the grace of God go I. Yeah. And that’s the feeling you get when you’re, realize that, you know, you’ve gotten lucky and because you’ve gotten lucky, it’s an obligation that you should be happily undertake to help those who have not gotten the same luck of the draw. And this is, it’s such a, you know, childhood cancer is a horrible, horrible disease. Yeah. High, high terminal rates. And what the families go through emotionally is so great. And I can’t even imagine what, what they go through. Right. The other thing that is not talked about and what Hogs tries to help with is the financial side of it. Because, I mean, these families, pretty much spend their life savings, between treatment and travel, accommodations, to just make sure their child has a chance. Yeah. And, you know, Hogs has, Hogs often receives, cards from families from grant families, saying, you know, how appreciative they are, for the grants. And, but one has always stuck in my head because the family put how much money they were spending every month, and it was like, just on the treatment, not including travel and accommodations. Just on treatment, it was like $5,000 a month. Wow. That’s insane. It reminds me, Owen, you were saying about the visceral feeling that you get from the impact of this, to what a lot of people describe like St. Jude’s is different but similar, right? It’s impacting kids. And I’ve had people over the years who go to the St. Jude’s race and like, if you just go up there and see it and feel it, like you’re like, you, there’s nothing like, there’s nothing like that feeling. And it’s a very from my perspective, a very similar thing. It’s like you get to eat really good food and drink and have a great time, listen to good music, and know that any money you spend or contribute is going to actually change somebody’s life and impact somebody’s life. I couldn’t believe how much money the freaking race raised last year. Like $5 million dollars from a single event. It’s unbelievable.

Let’s talk about Swine Krewe. Let’s talk about the fun stuff. What is on the menu this year? We got some of the best food at Swine Krewe, obviously. Duh. But the, bond me is a staple. I’m sure it’s coming back. What else are we going to expect this year? Can you let some cat out of the bag?

We’re going to have the bond me, to sell to the public, which we always do and it’s, you know, very popular. It’s kind of one of our signature dishes. This year, we’re also going to be selling, some smoked pork belly sliders. They are on, they are on a, like a King’s Hawaiian slider roll that’s been brushed with melted butter and, topped with everything bagel seasoning and set in the smoker for it to get, nice and right. The we smoked the pork belly, kind of like a rib. So it’s a little more firm. We top it with a mustard and apple cider vinegar Frizzay salad, and then, top that, with a homemade, peach habanero bourbon pepper jelly.

Dang. That sounds good. They are delicious. We’ll have those. We’ll also have our, our maple bacon, donuts. That we always have. Always the best seller. Always the best seller. Always on the top 10 list of the foods out there. We, we’ll also have our patrons’ dinner on Friday. If you ever donate to Swine Krewe, just set up, you know, the baseline levels, you’re invited to it. This year we’re doing our theme is South of the Border. And, we will have everything from scratch-made mole, to, homemade chorizo. We will have dishes from Peru, Puerto Rico, Costa Rica, and, Mexico of course. And, it should be fairly delicious.

Yeah. I’m, I’m ready. Have I shared the menu with you yet? Not yet. Not yet. Oh, listen to it. It’s incredible. They’ve done an incredible job putting together a great meal. Yeah, and just for those of you who don’t know, if you haven’t been, like this isn’t like nobody’s setting up an 8 by 10 pop-up tent. Like this is each of these teams, like Swine Krewe has a huge tent, a bar underneath there, a stage, tables, a back of the house, a kitchen. It’s a massive undertaking just for Swine Krewe to organize, for y’all to organize, and have this set up. And to understand the scale of it, how much money last year did we raise, Robert, for Swine Krewe? $125,000. That was just Swine Krewe raised $125,000, which is unreal. And what is our goal this year, do y’all think, y’all could possibly hit? Our goal is $250,000. I think we’ll be close. We’re definitely getting over 200. So that’s insane. It’s incredible. To think that like the team that y’all are managing and helping organize alone could raise will raise this year and not the $200,000 is pretty amazing. We, so this is, this is, this will be our fifth year running Swine Krewe. And we’ve increased in fundraising every single year. We started out, with $20,000, then we went to 60, 100, 125, and, you know, hopefully over 200 this year. And so onward and upward.

Amazing. And every team, like Swine Krewe, has their own fun things, everything they do. One of the unique things about Swine Krewe that I love is I’m gonna contribute this year to the Bourbon Bar. There’s a Bourbon Bar in the back. It’s good for a little while, then it gets you in trouble. No doubt. Also part of the fun. Also part of the fun. And if y’all like that, that meme, the Moti Gra Kitty has regrets, like you may have some regrets on Saturday morning. If you stay too close to the Bourbon Bar, for too long. But in any event, it’s a great time. And, what is the, are y’all gonna have any type of music on Friday night? Because the Friday night’s a big party night. Every, a lot of the teams are known for their big parties. Yeah, they do. It’s about six or seven of them, I think, this year that are doing parties. It’s definitely larger parties. It’s a category for the award. Right. Yes. We, we do have a band this year. We have not publicly released it yet, but I think we can just go ahead and do it here. We’ll have, the Ice Man Special, playing at the Swine Krewe tent this year. Oh, nice. They will start when the last band ends at the Yelp stage, so around 11 o’clock, and go for, go until 1 AM. Nice. And I think, that’s amazing. I think Andy was telling me that the band that played last year on Friday night is actually playing in Hogs this year. Is that right? That’s right. They stole it from us. I’ve, I’ve had some words. Yes. They were discussions. Y’all recruit, recruit music talent and then the festival steals it from you. And can we expand? And last year too, I don’t know how late I had left, but the DJ Rob Krieger, how late did he go last year? Rob Krieger DJ’d last year, right? He did. Under his DJ name, Rob Burgundy. And I don’t believe I can tell you how late he went. It was, he finished early in the morning. We’ll be, we’ll be talking to him, on Monday, March 30th, we’re gonna be doing the, double segment, on the morning show, the Fox morning show. Nice. In the kitchen. Nice. Yeah, it is a whole segment, right? Like the party, the, they give a party award every year for the Friday night party, best party. And some, a lot of the teams take that really freaking seriously. Like I think, a couple of years ago, like Boris Ness lost to like, I think Piglet, one or whatever, and that was like some big. Boris Ness people like. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. I mean, our view is, our version of a New Orleans party has to involve music. Yes. And I think Robert and I both agree that a concert is where it’s at. Yes. Like live, music, local, live music is where it’s at. As what New Orleans is all about and that’s why we’re all about it. Amazing. Okay. Anything else y’all want to say about before we close? Anything else you want people to know about Swine Krewe and the event as we come up? We’re close. I was just asking Robert, I think it’s like four weeks out or so. It’s three weeks out. Three weeks out. Second weekend in April. That’s right. Anything else y’all wanted to chat about, like just to talk about things Swine Krewe’s doing this year, something that they shouldn’t know about the festival coming up. I know it sells out pretty much every year. So. It does. And tickets are on sale now. So, you know, you need to get them while, while there’s still tickets. It’s gonna be a blast. I mean, early April, it’s gonna be great weather. It’s, it’s, it’ll be we’re excited. Yeah, it’s, it’s after Easter. So all of the Catholics may take a breath and enjoy some meat on Friday. That’s been an issue. Yeah. In the past. There’s been some, there’s been some, some sort of, people allowances that have been given in the past, or imputed. But, this year everyone’s in the clear. Yes. Which is one of those things, like I’ve had some friends who give up alcohol for Lent, and they’re like, oh, but the priests told me that I can drink on Sundays. Is this an exception to Lent? I don’t know if you ever heard that one. Oh yeah. Definitely. So like, so I saved up a couple Sundays for Hogs for the Cause. I’m like, whatever things you clean with the Lord at the end of the day. And how do they find the Swine Krewe link to go and donate specifically to Swine Krewe? So they can go to Swine Krewe.org. K R E W. And there’s a link on there that says, you know, donate to us, help out, help out some kids and families. And click that, but go right to our donation page, and they can give us some money. Amazing. Okay. Robert, Owen, thank you y’all so much for being here. Thank you y’all sincerely. I consider y’all friends now, but thank you y’all sincerely for what y’all are doing and running this team. I know you both have your own families and own careers and you’ll spend a significant amount of time organizing this that I get to have fun at every year. And really y’all are making an amazing impact. So thank you for what y’all are doing. Well, thank you, David. We appreciate your sponsorship. We appreciate your friendship. Absolutely. Thank you y’all. And thank y’all. What a great show. Get your wallets out. Go donate some freaking money to Swine Krewe and Hogs for the Cause. It is the second weekend in April this year. You can go to the, we’re gonna have everything linked in the show notes. And we’d really appreciate you contributing some money. Like Owen talks about earlier, so much of your donation is not going to administrative salaries and other bad places, or places where the money can’t make a real impact. It’s going to make a real impact on families and children who are suffering through pediatric brain cancer. This has been an amazing discussion and show of the Overruled podcast, brought to you by the Scott Vicknair Law Firm. Thanks for listening. Hope to see you at Hogs for the Cause before I’ve had four Bourbons, and we’ll see you next time. Scott Vicknair, injury attorneys, we fight for the win. Information is for illustrative purposes only and does not constitute tax investment or legal advice. Always consult with a qualified investment legal or tax professional before taking any action.