Complete with a Valentine’s Day cupid brandishing a bow and suction-cup arrows, Rotaract kicked off its annual effort to have an important University figure show a pig a little bit of love yesterday in Free Speech Alley.
Rotaract, a student service organization affiliated with Rotary International, began accepting $1 donations yesterday for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. The dollar bought a chance to vote on which student or faculty member would have to “Kiss the Pig.”
Kiss the Pig is a contest where two teams compete to receive the most donations. The contestant and the captain of the team that receives the most votes will have to kiss a pig donated by the AgCenter.
“Kissing a pig is not something I wake up in the morning wanting to do,” said Jordan Faircloth, Kiss the Pig contestant and LSU baseball pitcher. “But if it’s for a good cause like this, I would be happy to do it.”
Megan Scelfo, Rotaract member and English junior, said the support the contest received on its first day of accepting donations was better than expected.
“We have been out here for about three hours and have raised close to $200, and the largest donation was $20,” Scelfo said. “We’re going to be back out this Wednesday and Thursday, too, and then again closer to March and April.”
Neda Tahmasebi, president of Rotaract and biological sciences senior, said the contest raised $1,000 last year. Rotaract has set the bar higher for this year’s Kiss the Pig.
“We are hoping to get $1,500 this year,” Tahmasebi said.
Tahmasebi said the contest is divided into a student team and a faculty team, with all donations going directly to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.
The student team will be comprised of Chloé Wiley, homecoming queen, Colton Fontenot, homecoming king, Jordan Faircloth, baseball pitcher, Artie Brown, soccer foreward, and Courtney Rawls, Miss LSU. Brad Golson, president of Student Government, is the team captain.
William Wischusen, biological sciences associate professor, Wayne Parent, political science professor, and Kerrey Sauley, management professor, will make up the faculty team. Provost Risa Palm is the the faculty team captain.
“We are also trying to get Dr. James Wharton [chemistry professor and former University chancellor] and Chancellor Sean O’Keefe to be on the faculty team,” Tahmasebi said.
Linda Price-Thomas, campaign manager for the Baton Rouge Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, said the contest is a great way to raise money and awareness for blood cancer research.
“As a non-profit organization, we depend on donations to support our mission: to fund research in blood cancers and to improve the lives of patients and their families,” Price-Thomas said.
Price-Thomas also said most of the money raised by the contest will remain in Louisiana to help patients within the state.
One of the society’s projects involves a mentoring program for patients recently diagnosed with a disease.
“We put new patients in touch with patients who have similar diagnoses to mentor them through their treatment,” Price-Thomas said.
Though the kiss the pig contestants who spoke to The Daily Reveille said helping leukemia research was the main reason they were willing to face a possible smooch with a swine, some listed other motivations as well.
“I have lost a friend to non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and that made the reality of blood disease more personal to me,” Palm said. “Besides, former Chancellor [Mark] Emmert told me that he had to kiss the pig a few years ago and that it was a life-changing experience I shouldn’t pass up.”
Wischusen said he looks forward to the contest because it provides a way to raise money and awareness for a disease that affects a large number of people.
“This is exactly the kind of thing that should happen on a university campus,” Wischusen said. “This is a great cause, and if I have to kiss a pig, I’ll just have to keep reminding myself that pigs are supposed to be some of the cleanest animals.”