Destrehan Plantation will soon play host to a fundraiser benefitting those suffering from pediatric brain cancer.
The St. Charles Parish based “Porkbelly Cartel” Hogs for the Cause team will organize the May 18 event, the latest in the Hogs’ organization’s ongoing fight to combat the illness, which is the leading terminal cancer among children in the United States. Funds raised by the group go toward alleviating financial burdens upon families of the children battling brain cancer.
This event will follow up on the Hogs’ recent large fundraiser, the Hogs for the Cause festival in New Orleans, which saw a very strong turnout on April 4 and 5. Organizers say that the group was able to raise more than $5 million through the cook-off centered festival for affected families – besting its previous top fundraising mark, which was set at the annual festival a year prior.
The upcoming May 18 event will be a crawfish boil, with 100 percent of proceeds going to the Hogs for the Cause mission. Attendees can expect all-you-can-eat crawfish and live local music all day long.
Live music at the event will be performed by:
*Gracie Marie – 12:30 PM
•Cameron Dupuy & The Cajun Troubadours – 2:00 PM
•Amis du Teche – 4:00 PM
Jason Gonzalez of the Porkbelly Cartel team said Parish Seafood in Welsh is donating 2,000 pounds of crawfish for the event, which Gonzalez said organizers are looking to make an all-day, family friendly outing.
“There’s a ton of shade from all the oak trees, a lot of seating and tables … looking at the space yesterday, it’s definitely a great place for the event,” Gonzalez said. “It’s a great way to raise money for Hogs and hopefully make it a big event out here for the parish, almost closing out the crawfish season. We’ve been thinking about putting together an event like this and this year we decided to get this nailed down and make it happen.”
Gonzalez, who owns Gonzo’s Smokehouse and BBQ in Luling, said the hope is to make a successful outing that could lead to it becoming an annual event.
“Hopefully this is something that can grow and get bigger every year,” Gonzalez said.
The Porkbelly Cartel’s fundraising efforts have already done just that. The team was able to raise $80,000 for Hogs for the Cause through its efforts over the past year – more than double the amount of the year prior, when the team raised about $34,000. At this year’s Hogs for the Cause cookoff, the team captured the Fan Favorite award for having the highest food sales of the 92 teams at the event.
The team began with Hogs for the Cause in 2021. Gonzalez was long a fan of the Hogs’ events and wanted to help the fight against cancer, inspiring him to organize a team.
“I’ve been lucky – cancer doesn’t run in my family, but seeing these little kids being affected by this, it just really touches home and you want to do anything you can to help out,” Gonzalez said. “It’s a really, really good cause.”
Since it was established 17 years ago, Hogs for the Cause has donated millions more to families fighting cancer and to assist hospital programs.
The organization was born when Becker Hall and Rene Louapre organized a pig roast to benefit the family of a child battling terminal brain cancer.
The event raised more than $7,500, and its success fueled the desire to help even more families. Hogs for the Cause has done that – it’s become the largest pediatric brain cancer outreach service in the country.
Tickets for the May 18 event can be purchased online at https://www.cognitoforms.com/
