Porkapalooza begins Oct. 7

Chad Sawyer, who is in charge of the smoking team said the team cooks to help non-profits in their fundraising efforts.

At 44, Sawyer is the youngest member of the team, which usually consists of eight or nine men and women. For the past 12 years, the group has smoked the meat for the Senior Center. This will be the tenth year for Porkapalooza and again they’ll have smoked 200-300 slabs of ribs and the same number of tenderloins that the Senior Center will sell by pre-orders. Another 46 shoulders have been smoked for the pulled pork, which is used for lunches sold both days of the event and for quarts that have been ordered.

Lunches both days are from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. For a $5 donation, you can drive up and get a pulled pork sandwich (with secret, mouth-watering sauce), chips and a drink. Pork orders can be claimed 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 8.

The Senior Center is at 529 Jefferson St. and can be contacted at 812-853-5627.

Several current and past members of the NBC are veterans. Sawyer himself retired from the Marines after a 20-year stint with tours of duty in nine countries.

“The heart of this bunch of guys (and gals) is to get together and cook for a better cause,” he said.

Some of the non-profits helped by the BBQ Coalition — or NBC — include Cops Connecting with Kids, the Evansville Kiwanis and the Newburgh Senior Center. NBC smokes meat and the non-profits sell it.

The smoking events for the Cops Connecting with Kids were the means for that group to launch its programs, Sawyer said.

The NBC has done spring and fall cooks for that group. Members of the NBC include Henderson and Evansville police officers, he said, and they bring in others to help on occasion.

Terry Davis has helped with the Kiwanis cooks, he said, noting that the NBC has cooked for that organization for at least 10 years.

And to this point, the sales this year have been about the same as the past. Last year, he said, was unusually good for the groups they help because people were coming out of two years of isolation and they were anxious to get back to normal.

For example, in 2021, Porkapalooza sold 647 lunches, more than ever before. That event has grown by leaps from where it started 10 years ago in this iteration. Fundraising records were shattered, according to Colleen Martin, who chairs Porkapalooza.

Sawyer has done a few cooks on his own to help with fundraising. He smoked chicken and ribs for Warrick Voices of Change which advocates for women who have experienced domestic violence. His wife, Becky, is president of the group.

He hopes to get a fundraiser together with the NBC and the Albion Fellows Bacon Center, where Becky serves as a domestic violence social worker. Cooking is caring for Sawyer.

The BBQ team has changed during the past decade with several members moving, retiring or passing. The original sauce recipe developer, Brett Lucas, died about four years ago. Randy Daugherty has also passed.

Danny Russell moved to Florida and will still help with cooks whenever he and his wife are back in Newburgh. Some of the other original members were Kenny Head, John Taylor and Roger Davis.

Meyer said Lucas “invented” the secret sauce in 1984. It was so secret, that when he died, NBC members were temporarily at a loss as to what ingredients came close to the recipe.