Following their firm belief in charitable causes, Dick and Linda Workman of Lansing have donated a custom manufactured BBQ unit to Ashe Memorial Hospital which will be used by the facility for special events and fundraising benefits.

The large “pig cooker”, dubbed by Workman as “Miss Piggy”, was manufactured by BQ Grills of Elm City, NC and follows his specifications. Workman boasts that the unit can cook up to 200 pounds of pork or 60 chicken halves for 24 continuous hours without refill of the attached propane tanks. The unit also comes equipped with multiple 60-quart cooking pots that can simmer large batches of Brunswick stew, corn or potatoes while the main entrée is grilled to perfection. To add a flavor of traditional BBQ to the slowly grilled meat, Workman also worked to ensure that the cooker came with an external hickory chipped smoker that will fill the prepared meat with the smoky aroma that barbeque fanatics have grown to love.

AMH Operations Manage Joe Thore explained that the cooker will allow the hospital to host a wide variety of events for fundraising purposes including: BBQ chicken sales, hospital’s staff appreciation week, and any other type of special event.

“The concept of AMH having a BBQ to do a multitude of special events came from the Workman’s who said they could make this reality and actually went out and had this thing designed and built for us,” Thore said. “Dick and Linda were both very generous in donating this to the hospital.”

Workman, who has been around pig cooking for the past 40 years, explained that he donated a similar cooker to local church several years ago and did so again because he felt that the hospital could utilize it for a multitude of events.

“I’m a big believer in charitable cause and I felt this would be a vehicle that could assist them in fundraising. Because of my close affiliation with Joe Thore, R.D. Williams, and Jim Gambill I thought donating this to the hospital was the right thing to do,” Workman said. “It’s also a way we can pay tribute to our medical and military heroes.”

Although AMH has already accepted the generous gift, Workman acknowledged that his philanthropy doesn’t end there.

“I’m going to be back donating my time chief cook,” he added with a smile.