By Bradly Gill
News Editor
An annual tradition came back strong on May 1, despite having been postponed last year due to COVID-19.
“Guessfest,” a crawfish boil that started as a celebration of John Guess’s birthday, has also become a charity fundraiser for locals diagnosed with cancer.
After his wife, Denise, passed away from cancer, Guess thought about retiring the event, but kept Guessfest going in memory of his late wife.
“Denise died in 2015. After she died, we initially planned to quit doing it, and people kept telling us they still wanted us to keep doing it,” said Guess in 2018. “So, as a family, we decided we would use whatever money we made and help somebody. For years, we didn’t make any money. Most years we lost money. But we just did it to have a good time.”
T-shirts are sold every year to raise funds, and this year Guess and his wife Pam were able to deliver a $4,000 check to LeeAnn Garcia, a mother of six diagnosed with Stage 3 renal cell carcinoma.
“We’ll end up selling close to 400 t-shirts, ” Guess said.
Guessfest 2020, which was scheduled forGuess’s 60th birthday was canceled due to COVID-19, though he still sold the T-shirts and donated the profits, so this year’s event was the first one in two years.
“It was great, the weather was perfect, there was no problems whatsoever. A lot of the times you have problem with the equipment; we didn’t have a hitch at all this year. We had three great bands, they played on the background. Two years ago it was threatening rain and we never played on the back porch before. It just sounded better. So, that’s where they will be from now on, ” Guess said.
Guess said that a little over 900 pounds of crawfish was served along with 400 pounds of pork and 150 pounds of chicken.
Guessfest was also topped off with a 30-minute professional firework display by David Allen.
“We had a lot of help. Everybody looks at me, but it ain’t me. We just have it at my house and I’m the one that puts it together. I’m not the one that does all the work,” Guess said.
Guess would like to extend special thanks to: Cindy Carter for handling t-shirt sales; David Allen for the fireworks display; Stephens Butane for donation of fuel; David “Booger” Weaver & Robin Cummings for donation of chicken and pre-seasoning; Paul Lamkin along with Big Zack & Little Zack for grilled pork; Carl & Becky Guess for our GuessFest Cake; Chuck Sponer along with Darren Smith & Wayne Morris for their donations; Bryce Woods with Ben E Keith; PJ & The Boys Band; White Dog Band; F-n-A Band; All the anonymous friends that brought desserts; Crawfish cooks Lori Oglesbee Petter, Jerry Guess, Kevin Smith and Josh Guess; Freddie Richardson & Lee Moseley for cooking chicken; All the friends that came out and made it a special day; Ouachita Electric and Rainbow Inn for providing ice; Ted and Suzzanne Barnes for the Guessfest T shirts; Ouachita County Judge Robert McAdoo for support; and his family Pam, Cherity, Matt and Tyler Cross and Travis Daniels for their help.