Country Life = A Special Night

Something very special happened at our fair the other evening. I shared it on my facebook page, because I thought some of my local customers and followers who weren't at the fair would enjoy reading about what happened.

I never dreamed it would get the response it did! Many, many folks were touched by it. So, I thought I would share it here as well:

I had the honor of being a part of something last night that I wish you all could have witnessed. We were at the Marshall Co. Fair Livestock Auction, which is made up of 4-H & FFA kids. One of those kids, Matt, is 17. And in the hospital with leukemia. During the auction, a girl showing a lamb said that 10% of the sale of her lamb would go to Matt's family for expenses. Accessories Ltd. from Moundsville bought the lamb, and the owner announced that he was donating $100 to Matt's family, & he challenged the audience to do the same.

What happened next was beautiful. The bidding cards started going up in the air. The auction of livestock stopped, and the donations started pouring in. The ringmen simply stood there, looking around the arena & calling out the numbers, while the announcers took the numbers, then called out the name of the business or individual who was donating. In 10 minutes or so, $6200 was raised! And it didn't stop there. The donations kept coming the rest of the evening, and several more kids donated a percentage of their sale to Matt. 

The Livestock Sale is always a special time. Those kids work so hard, and it shows. They have lots of support from adults who teach them all about raising animals, and later from adults who buy at the sale. Every year, lots of money is donated to their Scholarship Fund. But this year, the Sale truly went above and beyond. It was a great night to be a member of the Marshall County, WV community.

One of the ladies who commented said that the same thing had happened at the Goat and Rabbit Auction, and that they had raised $3000 for Matt. How wonderful!


If you listen to the news, it's easy to think that there's no good people anymore.

Don't believe it.

If you listen to the news, it's easy to think every teenager is hooked on drugs, and doesn't care about anyone.

Don't believe it.

The kids that are involved in the fair are amazing to watch. We watched a little girl pushing a wheelbarrow full of bedding for her animal. It was quite the struggle to make a turn. The wheelbarrow was much bigger than she was, and when George saw her, he jumped in and helped her get it around the turn. But then off she went, full of determination.

We watched the college kids humbly accept scholarships set up for them through the Livestock Club Scholarship Fund, which gets it's money in part from the many donations from members of the business community and individuals who want to support them.

I'm sure we aren't alone in this. I'm sure it's repeated in many counties across rural America. 

May God bless all of them.

May God bless all those who so generously donated money to help Matt's family with expenses.

And most especially right now, we pray for Matt himself.

Amen.