Carolina Pig Jig 2009

William T. Bain Lodge #231 in Garner, NC won "Best of Show" in the 4th Annual Carolina Pig Jig on May 30th. The event was a collaboration of various masonic lodges across North Carolina including Prince Hall. There were 21 other lodges who competed in the event with prize categories which included judge's choice for "Best Pork", "Best Chicken" "Best Sauce", peoples choice award for "Best Tasting", and "Best of Show". The Best of Show winner is the one who has the coolest decorations, team spirit, antics and make it fun for the judges and crowd to stop over.

This was the William T. Bain Lodge #231 booth setup with the help of Linwood Hicks, Lee and Alicia Dugas, and Bonnie Hunt serving food. Jim Lancaster of Lancaster's BBQ donated the slaw to ours and several other masonic booths at the event including the Prince Hall lodges. Thanks to Tiki Hana for providing the bamboo-straw hut. Hunt Signs made the banners for the event.

Worshipful Master Ed Hunt loaned his golf cart to be used at the event to help promote the event and bring in traffic from the fair grounds. He donated all the artwork through his company and made banners for the event. We put the monkey brought by Jim Lancaster in the front seat of Ed's golf cart, and put the event banner on the windshield, turned the emergence flashers on and played authentic Hawaiian music. The golf cart was parked at the front gate where people come in to pay. Before long, there were thousands of people in line waiting to get in!!!

By 2:00 PM, every lodge ran out of food, then it was time to hand out the awards. Some of these people were from last year's winners: Salem Lodge 289 and Prince Hall. The competition was fierce and intense...the guys below in this photograph were very good at making BBQ:

Wake County Sheriff, Donnie Harrison, Commissioner of the NC Dept. of Agriculture, Steve Troxler and others were present to hand out the awards for the event.

This was an amazing event which brought together lodges of different ethnicities and races across North Carolina. I was very grateful for being a part of this event--but also learned quickly how unprepared we were to handle questions from the public like:

How cool is that? Here is one chance that our lodge gets to be in the eye of the general public, and I am fielding questions from young men and women about masonry only to find out that most think we belong to a secret society that hides in the shadows of illusion and mysticism (as shown on the History Channel network station and the movie called "The Da Vinci Code"). I was glad to help educate them on what masonry is and what it is NOT.

When they announced on the loud speakers the winners of the events and those charities are that masonry supports, I think most people who were there actually learned that masonry brings people together to benefit those who are less fortunate and it makes good men better.