Carrie Potts is the President and founder of Gene Potts Memorial, which she started in honor of her late husband, Gene Potts, lovingly known as Geno. Her work with the organization is deeply personal. Through Gene Potts Memorial, Carrie helps carry forward Geno’s memory, his love of cooking, his friendships in the steak cookoff community, and his desire to help others.
Carrie is a follower of Jesus Christ, and her faith shapes the way she serves, leads, and continues forward. Her leadership is rooted in love, compassion, perseverance, and a belief that even deep loss can become a way to serve others. For Carrie, Gene Potts Memorial is not simply a nonprofit. It is a living expression of faith, remembrance, and service.
Geno was a major part of the Steak Cookoff Association community. He loved grilling, competing, traveling the steak trail, meeting people, encouraging other cooks, and sharing the craft of cooking with others. Steak cookoffs became one of his favorite pastimes, and the friendships he built through that community became an important part of his life and his cancer journey.
After Geno passed, Carrie stepped into that world in a new way. Although she has a fear of fire, she chose to compete in a cookoff herself. That decision reflected courage, love, and a willingness to honor Geno by doing something that mattered to him. For Carrie, cooking a steak over fire was more than a competition. It was an act of remembrance, a personal step of faith, and a way to stay connected to the community Geno loved.
Those who knew Geno would understand the meaning behind that moment. He would have been proud of Carrie for facing her fear, showing up, and carrying his legacy forward. Her involvement in the cookoff community reflects the same spirit that Gene Potts Memorial continues to protect: encouragement, friendship, courage, generosity, and love for others.
As President, Carrie helps guide the organization’s mission to support adult chemotherapy patients and their caregivers. She helps keep the nonprofit focused on practical support, compassionate service, and community-centered fundraising. Through cookoffs, outreach, grants, and charitable events, Carrie continues to turn Geno’s memory into meaningful help for people facing cancer.
Carrie’s story is one of faith, love, grief, courage, and purpose. She honors Geno not only by remembering him, but by continuing the work he cared about, serving the community he loved, and helping others through difficult seasons of life.
Across her work with Gene Potts Memorial, Carrie Potts remains focused on a simple mission: to honor Geno’s legacy by serving others with compassion, dignity, and hope.