Published: September 08, 2020
Cooking Up a Cure
SPARTAN SPOTLIGHT
Chris Whitney ’06
Chris Whitney ’06 (second from left) and the other Pig Jig co-founders
Former UT baseball pitcher Chris Whitney ’06 makes things happen.
Take the Tampa native’s 2018 decision to launch Whitney Transport, a company that hauls bulk materials like asphalt. When COVID-19 arrived, he quickly pivoted to a touchless delivery system that earned him recognition in an April Tampa Bay Times article.
But this isn’t the first time his accomplishments have made headlines; he also co-founded a successful, Tampa-based fundraiser called Pig Jig that will celebrate its 10th anniversary next year.
That journey began in 2008, when his longtime friend Will Wellman was diagnosed with FSGS, a rare and debilitating kidney disease with no FDA-approved treatments and no cure. Wellman lives without kidneys and undergoes seven-hour dialysis sessions three nights a week to survive.
Looking to help, Whitney and three friends held two benefit walks in 2009 and 2010 for NephCure Kidney International (a charitable organization that provides education and support to patients and funds research for kidney diseases) that raised a total of $30,000.
It was a start, but “a walk just wasn’t inspiring to us,” Whitney says. The fundraiser needed more ... flavor. He and his friends thought about their love of grilling and hatched a new plan: They’d host a contest to see who could make the best-tasting barbecue. In 2010, the first Pig Jig was held in a backyard during a football Saturday.
The event was so popular that they needed to move to larger locations over the years: Armature Works, then Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park and they plan to move their next event to Julian B. Lane Riverfront Park. Last year’s event alone drew about 8,000 attendees and featured live music and games. In the past decade, Pig Jig has raised more than $4 million — becoming NephCure’s top annual fundraiser.
In fact, Pig Jig has been such a hit that he’s created a “playbook” for other fundraisers. Now there are two other Pig Jigs — in San Jose, CA, and Colorado Springs, CO — and Whitney, a married dad of two, serves on NephCure’s board of directors.
Whitney is grateful for the large number of UT students who volunteer to help at the event annually. While this year’s Pig Jig is sidelined due to COVID-19, the organization has committed to deliver a $100,000 check to NephCure and hopes to raise $1 million at next year’s event.
“When we started Pig Jig, there were no drugs for FSGS,” he says. “Today, there are 22 drugs in trials with the potential to better treat and cure this disease.”
To learn more and get involved with this fun and worthy cause, visit tampapigjig.com.
By Amanda Prishack
Photograph Courtesy of Tampa Pig Jig
