Sold! Ag Unlimited bids on a brighter future for CAFNR students
Story by Drew Stewart, Photos by Taryn Dameron. Posted 2/13/06

CAFNR alumni scholarship recipients, from left, Laurie Thomas, Paul Cowherd and Jill Nelson are auctioned off by Leroy Van Dyke to help raise more scholarship dollars.

“Please bid often,” Rick Meyer, co-chair of the Ag Alumni Association said as he kicked off the 13th annual Agriculture Unlimited auction held in the MU Alumni Center on Jan. 31. “Open those pocketbooks so we can benefit these students!”

The Ag Unlimited banquet and auction is a fundraising event run by the Ag Alumni Association of the College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources. The event included dinner and dessert served by Hotel and Restaurant Management students, a gun raffle, a silent auction where alumni were able to bid on donated items over a course of two hours, and a “buyer’s choice” event in which winning ticket holders select items of their choosing. But the live auction is when Ag Unlimited really comes to life. 

Handling auctioneering duties was Leroy Van Dyke, a recent inductee into the Auctioneer Hall of Fame. Van Dyke would help in selling items that ranged from quilts and prints, to a dinner with Dean Tom Payne and an honorary coaching position with Mizzou’s football team. Most fitting though, would be the sale of “student labor” from three of this year’s MU Ag Alumni Scholarship recipients.  They’ll certainly be rolling up their sleeves soon, but the recipients know it’s for the right cause. 

“The scholarship not only helps pay for my college, but it opens up more doors through things like networking with alumni,” MU sophomore Paul Cowherd said. Cowherd donned a farmer’s outfit and a cleaning rag while being auctioned off this year.

CAFNR Vice Provost and Dean Tom Payne and his wife Alice, above, offer their services as chefs and hosts. MU Hotel and Restaurant Management students, right, hustle to serve the crowd of alums, faculty, staff and friends of the College.

For $160, one lucky alumnus bought the rights to a cleaner house, courtesy of Cowherd and two other scholarship recipients. This, plus the proceeds from all the auctioned items, created enough money for 18, $1,500 scholarships this year. Over the past 13 years, Ag Unlimited has raised approximately $250,000, Sheila Oliver, co-chair of the Alumni Association said.   

“Ag Unlimited is based on the generosity of the alumni,” Oliver said. “That’s what continually makes it so successful.”

Other items for sale included a hunting trip to Herman, 40 hours on a John Deere 90- horsepower tractor; a Busch Stadium seat-back signed by five Cardinal Hall of Famers’, boneless pork loins, and a five-night hotel accommodation to Walt Disney World in Orlando. 

Some credit Ag Unlimited’s success to its diversity in items of interest.  

“We have a lot of fun and exciting items this year,” Oliver said before the auction. “We’re selling a lot of different things than what we’ve ever sold before. It should a blast!” 

Although the organization gives out a large number of scholarships, Meyers points out that the majority of them are directed towards upperclassmen. Fifteen of this year’s 18 scholarship recipients were either juniors or seniors.

Even after 13 years, Ag Unlimited continues to raise large amounts of scholarship money for Mizzou students.  Judging from the enthusiasm of the alumni and students involved, the Agriculture Unlimited auction will be around for 13 more. 

“I expect to get involved in Ag Unlimited after graduation,” MU junior and scholarship recipient Jill Detring-Kohut said. “I would love to give back to this wonderful University.”

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