Where's the pork?
by Anna Oakes
It may have been Valentine's Day, but Hambo the Rambo of Pork
wasn't feeling very amorous.
Nine suitors lined up on the lawn of Wells Fargo in Boone Tuesday to plant a kiss on Hambo, a pig from a Creston farm, as part of the second annual Big Pig Kiss-off, a fundraiser for High Country United Way. But Hambo flat-out refused their advances.
“Hambo the Rambo of Pork actually lived up to his name,” explained Linda Slade, executive director of High Country United Way. “We tried the best we could to corral him, but he squealed so loudly that all of his brothers and sisters broke out of their pen to come help him.”
Unable to wrangle the pig-headed farm animal, the United Way turned to something a little more cooperative — a large, stuffed black and white pig borrowed from Bandana's Bar-B-Que in Boone.
The Big Pig Kiss-off invites members of the community to step up as leaders and issue a challenge to their friends, family and colleagues. The leader, or “challenger,” forms a team, which sets a collective United Way fundraising goal. If the team reaches its goal, the challenger will kiss a pig. If the team falls short, the team members will jointly kiss the pig.
This year, said fundraising chairperson and local weatherman Ray Russell, the Kiss-off raised $37,270 for the High Country United Way. The agency, which serves Avery and Watauga counties, has raised 65 percent of its $550,000 annual fundraising goal.
“Thank you to everyone that's been a part of that,” Russell told the crowd at Wells Fargo.
Challengers who kissed the pig Tuesday were Russell; Avery County Schools Supt. David Burleson; Susan Norris of Piedmont Federal Savings Bank; Bill Parker, District 7670 Rotary governor; Dick Hearn, president of the High Country United Way Board of Directors; Julie O'Dell-Michie with Blue Ridge Electric Membership Corporation; Tom Mayer, executive editor for Mountain Times Publications; Frank Ruggiero, editor of The Mountain Times; and Mary Wood, with Mast General Store.
Ruggiero described his surprise when the pig was revealed.
“At first I thought the United Way had contracted an outstanding taxidermist, but upon closer inspection, I felt a combination of relief and slight disappointment, but who's complaining?” he said.
Nine suitors lined up on the lawn of Wells Fargo in Boone Tuesday to plant a kiss on Hambo, a pig from a Creston farm, as part of the second annual Big Pig Kiss-off, a fundraiser for High Country United Way. But Hambo flat-out refused their advances.
“Hambo the Rambo of Pork actually lived up to his name,” explained Linda Slade, executive director of High Country United Way. “We tried the best we could to corral him, but he squealed so loudly that all of his brothers and sisters broke out of their pen to come help him.”
Unable to wrangle the pig-headed farm animal, the United Way turned to something a little more cooperative — a large, stuffed black and white pig borrowed from Bandana's Bar-B-Que in Boone.
The Big Pig Kiss-off invites members of the community to step up as leaders and issue a challenge to their friends, family and colleagues. The leader, or “challenger,” forms a team, which sets a collective United Way fundraising goal. If the team reaches its goal, the challenger will kiss a pig. If the team falls short, the team members will jointly kiss the pig.
This year, said fundraising chairperson and local weatherman Ray Russell, the Kiss-off raised $37,270 for the High Country United Way. The agency, which serves Avery and Watauga counties, has raised 65 percent of its $550,000 annual fundraising goal.
“Thank you to everyone that's been a part of that,” Russell told the crowd at Wells Fargo.
Challengers who kissed the pig Tuesday were Russell; Avery County Schools Supt. David Burleson; Susan Norris of Piedmont Federal Savings Bank; Bill Parker, District 7670 Rotary governor; Dick Hearn, president of the High Country United Way Board of Directors; Julie O'Dell-Michie with Blue Ridge Electric Membership Corporation; Tom Mayer, executive editor for Mountain Times Publications; Frank Ruggiero, editor of The Mountain Times; and Mary Wood, with Mast General Store.
Ruggiero described his surprise when the pig was revealed.
“At first I thought the United Way had contracted an outstanding taxidermist, but upon closer inspection, I felt a combination of relief and slight disappointment, but who's complaining?” he said.
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