The Hardwood BBQ team members are no strangers to lending a helping hand to those in need.
Just last month, the team held a fundraiser event for a teen named Nathan Dodds, who was diagnosed with brain cancer. The event, held Oct. 3 at Uncle Mike’s Smokehouse Grill, was a success.
And it wasn’t long after that event that Hardwood BBQ team member Layla Drawdy found another cause to fight for: her friend, Michelle Friend Dearhart, had then made her battle with lymphoma known.
“As soon as we left that event, I was checking Facebook and I found Michelle’s GoFundMe,” Drawdy says. “I’ve known her my entire life. She’s a dear friend of both sides of the family and biological aunt of one of our team members.”
So, with Pig Jam on the horizon, it only made sense for the team to plan to take advantage of their festival spot.
ONGOING STRUGGLES
Dearhart is currently fighting diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, a form of cancer that appears in lymph nodes and can travel through the bloodstream.
She currently is undergoing chemotherapy treatments, for which costs can pile up.
This has rendered Dearhart unable to work, and the fact that she must also raise two teenage sons only adds to the pile. The GoFundMe page, as of Nov. 10, had raised $1,970 of its $10,000 goal over three months.
That part stuck out to Drawdy, who immediately knew the Hardwood BBQ team would be able to help.
“We compete at Pig Jam and Pigfest, in Lakeland,” she says. “For those events, there is a potential to make money. It’s not that we need extra money, so if we can do something to help others, we try to do it.”
GOOD SAMARITANS
Hardwood BBQ doesn’t do as many competitions as other local teams do, so these men and women try to make their appearances count for the greater good.
“We mainly help children’s charities, orphanages, children’ homes — things like that,” Drawdy says. “Whatever profits we make, after recouping our costs, go to charity.”
Headed by Dustin Drawdy, the team consists of 13 members with two clear responsibilities: the men do the cooking, and the women do the vending. The team is perhaps best-known for their jalapeño pulled pork poppers, and in 2014 won a championship at Pig Jam.
Because the team is choosing to use Pig Jam to promote their cause, rather than set up another standalone event like the one for Dodds, Layla Drawdy doesn’t expect to generate as much money from Pig Jam sales alone.
So, the team is also considering holding a raffle at its booth to help boost those funds.
And, of course, the team has been inventing unique barbecue creations to draw people in. The members won’t go on the record about anything but the jalapeño poppers but promises to serve barbecue in ways that most people have probably never tried.
Hardwood BBQ plans to use every penny left after covering its costs to help Dearhart, and also has been promoting the GoFundMe page wherever possible.
For more information about the team, visit its Facebook page at facebook.com/RebelHogzBBQ.
Contact Justin Kline at jkline@plantcityobserver.com.
DONATE NOW
Readers who don’t want to wait until Pig Jam to help Michelle Friend Dearhart pay for treatment can visit her GoFundMe page, gofundme.com/8z7q6phgc.
To sponsor the team, contact Layla Drawdy at hardwood bbq@tampabay.rr.com.