Following an ALS diagnosis, two best friends began annual cook-off to raise money for patient care

By Adam Vos,

Published April 26, 2023 at 3:58 PM CDT

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Dale Clark (center) looks out at the crowd during first F5 cook-off as his friend Joe Bernard (right) puts an arm around him.

Courtesy of Team Gleason

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First Fin Feather Fur Food Festival cook-off for Team Gleason, 2022.

Courtesy of Team Gleason

This Thursday, the Blackham Coliseum in Lafayette will host the second annual Fin Feather Fur Food Festival – or F5 – a cooking competition. The cook-off also serves to benefit Team Gleason, an organization committed to finding solutions for people living with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, or ALS. The organization was founded by Steve Gleason, former New Orleans Saints safety who was diagnosed with ALS in 2011.

But while Steve Gleason might be the name you recognize, the F5 cook-off actually all began with two good friends, Joe Bernard and Dale Clark.Upon Dale’s diagnosis with ALS, they teamed up to host their first event last year, and now they’re making this dream a reality for the second year in a row. They joined Team Gleason’s director of development, Kearney Gay, to speak with Louisiana Considered’s Alana Schreiber for more.

Derek Gordon, a Baton Rouge native, led an impressive arts career before returning to his hometown to serve with the Arts Council of Greater Baton Rouge. After his passing in 2012, his family approached the Arts Council about what to do with his substantial art collection.

Now, the Arts Council is displaying a selection of 50 works from that 500-work “Derek Gordon and Rodolfo Ramirez Collection.” The exhibition will begin tomorrow, April 27, with an opening reception on May 11th.

Lundyn Herring, curator of the exhibition, and Francine Ramirez, family of Derek Gordon and his late partner Rodolfo Ramirez-Rodriquez, join us to discuss the significance of this collection to the Baton Rouge arts community.

Today’s episode of Louisiana Considered was hosted by Adam Vos. Our managing producer is Alana Schreiber and our digital editor is Katelyn Umholtz. Our engineers are Garrett Pittman and Aubry Procell.

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