How one man's barbecue built a $1 million conservation legacy

If she could go back in time, there’s one question Ann Costello would ask Richard and Ava Turner: “Would you ever have dreamed that we, over 13 years, would have grossed over a million dollars?”

What started in 2013 as a way for Richard to put his pitmaster skills to work supporting Foothills Conservancy of North Carolina (FCNC) has grown into the organization’s largest annual fundraiser, bringing together Lake James community members to celebrate conservation and raise money to protect the region’s land and water.

This year’s Sweet Lucy’s Affair at Camp Lake James will look a little different following Richard’s passing earlier this year. The event will continue to bear the name of Sweet Lucy, his beloved smoker, but will instead serve as a tribute. As a way to honor him, barbecue has since been retired from the menu.

For more than a decade, Richard donated his time, and often the cost of the meat, to prepare barbecue for the event.

“It really was a production of love because doing the barbecue the way he did, it requires 24 hours and monitoring,” Costello said. “It is a real commitment.”

Costello chuckled a little, sharing that the name of the smoker came from a popular bourbon-based liqueur produced in Tennessee that Richard enjoyed with the other men in the Lake James community.

Costello, who serves as the vice chair of FCNC’s board of directors, lived on the same road as Richard and Ava and has been involved with the fundraiser from its beginning as an intimate house party “friendraiser.”

At one point, she asked Richard why he was so interested in supporting the conservancy. His answer stuck with her over the years.

“He said the mission really resonated with him: That conserving land for all time for all people is a wonderful message,” Costello said.

Ava also played a key role in organizing the event in the early years before stepping down due to health challenges.

“Ava, she really was a community connector,” Costello said. “When they built their house here, I think it was the first house built, so for a lot of people here in those really early days buying lots, there was no social hub, well, Ava Turner was it.”

Richard’s second wife, Catherine, also continued the tradition for as long as Richard was able to be involved. Last year, Richard attended Sweet Lucy’s Affair as a guest and was honored for his dedication over the years.

“Sweet Lucy’s this time is really a tribute to Richard and Ava and all of the years that they gave, and a thanks to Catherine Turner too for continuing that support,” Costello said.

A LEGACY OF CONSERVATION

The more than $1 million raised through Sweet Lucy’s Affair over the past 13 years has helped FCNC leverage more than $70 million to support land protection, according to the nonprofit’s Marketing and Development Director Katherine Ehrlichman.

The organization works to permanently protect land and water across its eight-county service area, including Burke County. Over the years, FCNC has reached several conservation milestones and completed many projects around Lake James. In 2023, the North Bend Game Land was established, bringing FCNC’s total protected acreage around the lake to over 11,000 acres.

The organization accepted conservation easements from Duke Energy buffering lands along the Catawba River and tributaries below Lake James dams. The transaction triggered the creation of the North Bend Game Land, public lands administered by the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission.

“When you think about the work that we do as the conservancy, it’s bigger than all of us,” Ehrlichman said. “We are truly leaving a legacy for generations to come, and that’s the beautiful thing about what Richard built. He really did create a legacy of conservation. He created a legacy of philanthropy within the Lake James community.”

Residents around Lake James have been able to see firsthand the impact of a land trust and other environmental organizations involved in responsible development.

“There are very strict rules and development restrictions. Houses have to be a certain distance from the shoreline. They can’t be above a certain height,” Ehrlichman said. “You have to be responsible with how you manage the trees and the landscaping, so everything is very thoughtful.”

GROWING A COMMUNITY AROUND A SHARED MISSION

Over the past 13 years, Sweet Lucy’s Affair has grown considerably, Costello said.

The first year, the event drew representation from only a few neighborhoods, but now as the lake community has grown and awareness surrounding conservation has grown, there’s representation from more than two dozen lake communities, Costello said.

“What I’ve called the heart and soul of the Sweet Lucy’s Affair is the leadership circle hosts, and this was really the idea of Ava and Richard from the start, that you’d start with a handful of families who were willing to donate a pretty good chunk of money, so we would go into the event with the revenue to support it, and then sell tickets,” Costello said.

The initial leadership circle started with eight couples, six of which are still involved. It has since grown to about 80 families that now support Foothills Conservancy through the event.

Last year, about 240 people attended the event, and this year, about 170 tickets have already been sold for the Sept. 26 date. The event is invite-only for members of the Lake James community, and it is entirely volunteer-led, which Ehrlichman said is an unusual model compared to other land trusts.

“We’re incredibly fortunate that we have this group of people that not only want to support us financially, but they are also throwing this event to celebrate conservation work in our region,” Ehrlichman said. “It’s really special.”

Ehrlichman said Costello has played a major role in the fundraiser’s success, particularly through her efforts to build community and inspire others to be philanthropic.

“She cares so much about this region and about conservation in this region,” Ehrlichman said. “She’s a powerhouse and we’re incredibly fortunate that she’s choosing to support this organization with her time, not just her dollars.”

For Costello, her love for Foothills Conservancy’s mission and how it’s made a difference in her own backyard is why she has stayed involved over the years.

“My husband and I were living in Northern Virginia in the D.C. suburbs, but we wanted to find a place which we described as near the mountains, on a lake, and a place where you can walk out of the front door in a pair of hiking boots and keep on going,” Costello said. “We found that here.”

“It wasn’t until a few years later that we realized that part of our goal, our dream, and what we wanted to find was something that Foothills had created for us,” Costello said.