DELAWARE — Shock and gratitude swept over 13-year-old Cecilia Mark on Wednesday night after she watched her grand champion market hog sell to a family friend.
Kinsale Golf and Fitness, where Mark’s family has been members for several years, came out on top of a bidding war for her hog, Cherry, with a winning bid of $3,500 during the Delaware County Junior Fair livestock sale.
Regan Koivisto, who operates Kinsale Golf and Fitness and Scioto Reserve Country Club, placed the winning bid on the 281-pound hog, which had a market value of $126.45. Koivisto elected to have Cherry processed.
For Mark, of Ostrander, having someone she knew purchase the hog made the moment even more meaningful.
“It’s great,” Mark said. “I knew that my pig was pretty good, but grand champion is a big deal. I didn’t think we were going to get it, but it’s really great that we did.”
Koivisto said he loves what Mark and other junior fair members do, adding that seeing all the barns around the fair took him back to his childhood.
“These girls have been members at the clubs for many years, and when I found out they were doing this I said, ‘You know what? I’m going to go up to the Delaware County Fair and see what it’s all about,'” Koivisto said.
“I walked through the barns, and it kind of took me back to my childhood. I just love watching these kids,” he said. “They’re working, they got their boots on, they’re shoveling you know what to keep the pens clean.
“This is America to me. This is the heartland, and I just love everything about that.”
Koivisto went on to purchase several more hogs and other animals during the sale. Hiram Masonic Lodge No. 18 was also among Wednesday’s buyers.
The lodge purchased Adelyn Hall’s 243-pound reserve champion market hog for $1,000. The hog had a market value of $109.35.
An emotional lamb grand champion
Ella Alitzer’s grand champion market lamb was actually the first sale to take place on Wednesday night.
Stepping onto the stage, the 15-year-old from Sunbury couldn’t hold back her tears once the bidding started.
A total of eight different groups came together to purchase and process Alitzer’s 141-pound lamb, with a market value of $338.40.
Jim Hildreth and family, Cam Custom Carpentry, Delaware City Firefighters Local 606, Fox Smith Solutions, Granny Creek Farms, McComas Builders, State Farm Jessica Forman and Rest Easy Roofing collaborated on the $4,500 bid price.
Still sorting through her emotions, Alitzer said through all the successes she’s had with her lamb, “he’s just been a really good friend this past year.”
But it wasn’t just a sad moment. Alitzer also said it was also one of accomplishment.
“I’m happy that he finally got his win, definitely a lot of emotions,” she said.
Goat buyers club makes sure every kid gets theirs
The Delaware County Goat Buyers Group is an organization of about 30 former 4-Hers, business leaders, government officials and generally people who want to raise the return price on kids’ goat projects.
Delaware County Recorder Melissa Jordan organizes the group that also includes Commissioners Gary Merrell and Jeff Benton.
But while the group centers on goats, Jordan said it actually has freed up funds for kids to have other projects as well, which in turn elevates all the markets.
The group claimed the highest bids for both the grand champion market dairy wether ($1,800) and the grand champion market boer goat ($2,000).
Logan Lucas of Johnstown showed the grand champion market dairy wether, and Ella Trenton of Sunbury showed the grand champion market boer goat.
Merrell and Benton also split the winning bid price of $1,450 for the reserve champion market dairy wether, shown by Benjamin Wood of Delaware.
“This is really just a chance for us to give back to these kids and help them invest in their futures,” Jordan said. “While we did buy some of the champions, we also sit here and bid on everybody’s to make sure there’s a level that everybody is going to go home with so nobody is left out.
“We don’t want it to all be about the political connections and who you might know. They all work equally as hard.”
Non-champions still leave winners
Similar to the goat buyer’s group, Neil Vining from the Ostrander area attended Wednesday’s night sale to make sure his grandkids’ pigs sold for a fair price.
“I would hate to see the whole summer [not pay off],” Vining said. “A lot of work went into it. It’s not fair for my grandkids to not get a fair price for their animals.”
Vining knew firsthand how much work went into raising the pigs, because they were kept at his fifth-generation family farm.
“We live on a family farm, so my grandkids would come every day to feed, water, walk, clean the bins,” he said. “It’s a nice family tradition.”
For 10-year-old Delaware native Danielle Johnson, the sale was a chance to see months of work raising her pig pay off.
“I really like knowing that by being able to put in the effort, I can get money,” she said. “And even though it’s sad, people can really use what I raise.”
Johnson’s efforts paid off indeed, as her pig sold for $1,300.
Auctioneer Collin Howard perhaps put it best when describing what the sale represents for the young exhibitors.
“It’s a culmination of all the kids’ hard work, whether it was a steer, a hog, rabbit, turkey or any of the other species we have,” Howard said.
“The goal is a simple one: Raise as much as we can for the kids to reward them for all their hard work.”
