SUMTER, S.C. — Despite the dreary weather, Sumter residents are getting outside to benefit the Boy Scouts with barbecue.
More than 20 teams have come here to the Sumter Fairgrounds to test their skills rain or shine. They’re trying to find out who has the best barbecue — all for a good cause.
“I like the Carolina,” Sumter resident Vincent Gailliard shared about his favorite barbecue sauce. “If you got good barbecue, you don't even need sauce.”
Gailliard is just one of the residents planning to come out to the 12th annual barbecue competition benefiting the local Boy Scout chapter in Sumter, Lee and Clarendon Counties.
“That's great, you know, anytime you can give to a good cause, you know, I think I'm a charitable type of person,” Gailliard said. “So yeah, I love giving back.”
“For the young people,” Dennie Somheil with Big Butts Barbecue said about why he’s been coming back to the event every year since it started. “And you can't ask for anything any better. If it's anything to the benefit the younger group here in Sumter or anyplace else we go to, we really shine on trying to help that part.”
Somheil says the people who come to the event, from the cooks to the attendees, make it feel like a “reunion.” He cooks alongside people like Gene Culbertson with Backwoods BBQ.
“Anytime that you can keep it here in town and supporting the guys and girls, I mean, that means a lot,” Culbertson said.
Tailgater Hater owner Phillip Miles says the good cause keeps him coming back each year.
“Anytime you help anybody local, especially kids, you know with everything going on in the world today, they need some guidance so it’s a good cause,” Miles said.
It’s why Glenn Button works as the event chairman. Button is an Eagle Scout and his son and grandson are Boy Scouts.
“It’s helped me with my career,” Button shared. “Eagle Scouts, you know, they learn a lot of value in life and stuff before they get out in the real world and so that's helped me out with all my working time and being a father and also being a grandfather now.”
People like Madonna Herkes come out to support the cause, while the South Carolina Barbecue Association (SCBA) judges.
“I think it's good that they're doing that,” Herkes explained. “It really shows that community can come together. Yeah, I think that we should do more of these.”
As the SCBA Event Marshal, Harold Chandler says this event — and its good cause — is near to his heart since Sumter is his home.
“We look for the best barbecue we could ever find,” Chandler laughed. “Anytime you can come out into any community’s where I’ve been to judge other than being a marshal and see the folks who come out and support what's going on to benefit their community is just a fantastic thing. That's what we like to see is communities taking care of themselves.”
Chandler says the pork is judged on presentation, aroma, taste and texture (among other criteria) and can get a maximum score of 17.
“We have not had to my knowledge a perfect 17 in any contest we've done in forever,” Chandler said. “And what we do have what we call the 16 Plus Club and those folks who score a 16 plus, then they get a little sticker that they can put on their camper.”
The first day of the event, featuring chicken wings, ends at 9 p.m. on Friday. On Saturday, attendees can get a $10 wristband to have all you can eat pork samples from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.