2
CapitalPress.com
Friday, September 2, 2022
People & Places
Auctioneer continues family legacy
By MATTHEW WEAVER
Capital Press
Established 1928
COLFAX, Wash. — Cot-
ton Booker competed for the
first time in the International
Auctioneer Championship
in July, but he’s been attend-
ing it almost his whole life.
Now 20 years old, he’s
attended the event every
year since 2007 — the first
year he can remember being
there.
“It was something I’ve
always dreamt of growing
up,” he said of competing.
Capital Press Managers
Joe Beach ..................... Editor & Publisher
FFA experience
This year, Booker is
a finalist for the national
FFA’s American Star award
for agribusiness, citing his
COTTON BOOKER
Entire contents copyright © 2022
Occupation: Co-owner,
Booker2Bid.com
Age: 20
Hometown: Colfax, Wash.
Family tradition
Auctions run in the fam-
ily. He was three months old
in 2002, when his grand-
father, D.L. Booker, was
inducted into the National
Auctioneers
Association
Hall of Fame.
Cotton Booker hopes to
continue his family’s leg-
acy as an auctioneer, follow-
ing in the footsteps of his
grandfather, his father, C.D.
“Butch” Booker, and his
uncles and cousins.
“Everyone looks at their
local auctioneer as someone
who can help them in the
right way and do the right
thing for them,” he said.
“Auctioneers are looked at
as those that are supposed to
have an expertise on every-
thing and be able to deter-
mine a price. (They have)
the ability to help people and
serve people in a way that no
one else can.”
In 2018, he won the Inter-
national Junior Auctioneer
Championship.
Western
Innovator
Anne Long ................. Advertising Director
Matthew Weaver/Capital Press
Cotton Booker is a finalist for the national FFA American Star award for agribusiness,
co-owner with his father of their online auction business and a college junior study-
ing agricultural business and pre-law.
six years of agricultural auc-
tioneering during high school
and college.
The award recognizes
members who have gone
“above and beyond” in their
supervised agricultural expe-
riences, or SAEs, and mas-
tered their skills..
“It means a lot,” he said.
“It’s a humbling experience.”
Joining FFA boosted his
self-confidence, he said.
It enabled him to “...grow
as myself and grow what
I was able to do behind a
microphone, from the stand-
point of public speaking and
being in front of judges,” he
said.
Long-time friends
National FFA president
Cole Baerlocher and Booker
have known each other since
preschool in Steptoe, Wash.
They were two of six mem-
bers of their eighth-grade
class, before attending high
school in Colfax.
“It’s pretty dang cool” to
be able to say of Baerlocher,
“I know that kid,” Booker
said. “I’m super proud of
him.”
Baerlocher is just as proud
of Booker.
“Cotton represents just
how far a little hard work
can get you,” he said. “He’s
experienced success in all
that he’s done because he’s
willing to put his head down
and put in the time and ded-
ication to see his goals come
to fruition.”
Baerlocher will oversee
the national convention ses-
sion this fall when American
Star winners are presented.
Family business
With his father, Booker
also co-owns Booker2Bid.
com, an online auction
platform.
Butch Booker’s business,
Kincaid Real Estate, had
to pivot in the early days of
the COVID-19 pandemic as
in-person events, including
auctions, were impacted.
Cotton was a high school
senior, just about to graduate.
“There was a lot of uncer-
tainty,” he said. “We didn’t
know what was going to
happen.”
So father helped son learn
the business, and son helped
father navigate the technical
aspects of online actions.
The two businesses are
separate but affiliated, with
Butch Booker owning and
brokering for both.
Kincaid primarily handles
residential real estate, while
Booker2Bid.com primarily
handles agricultural land.
“He sees the big pic-
ture, but he also understands
the small steps that have to
be made in order to move
things forward,” office man-
ager Abbie DeMeerleer said.
“Cotton has the opportu-
nity to grow his family’s leg-
acy while helping it move
forward into a more elec-
tronic age, and an age where
the agriculture industry is
shifting.”
Education: Junior at
Oklahoma State Univer-
sity, studying agricultural
business and pre-law
Family: Mom Jennifer,
dad Butch
Website: https://www.
booker2bid.com/
MOSES LAKE, Wash. — Dawna
Sandmann lives in her camper during
the week of the Grant County Fair.
“I do not go home,” she said.
“You’re pretty much on call if
there’s something going wrong. ...
I’m here Monday at noon when we
do check-in to Sunday morning.”
Sandmann has volunteered at the
fair in Moses Lake, Wash., for 15
years. She started as a 4-H leader, and
then became sheep superintendent, a
role she’s filled for eight years.
It’s getting harder to find volun-
teers, she said.
“People are so busy with just life,
and I get it, I was that mom, too,”
she said. “Nobody’s stepping up to
put the time in. No volunteer group
works with the same four people —
we need new blood.”
Volunteers are the “backbone” of
fairs, said Andrea Thayer, president
of the Washington State Fairs Asso-
ciation board and chief experience
officer for the Washington State Fair
in Puyallup.
Thayer believes the total number
of volunteers is fairly stable, but the
ease of finding them varies by loca-
tion. Some fairs have good, well-de-
veloped systems for volunteers,
while others are competing for vol-
unteers’ time.
In 2019, roughly 5,600 people
volunteered at fairs across the state,
according to an economic impact
study from the association and state
Matthew Weaver/Capital Press
Volunteer sheep superintendent Dawna Sandmann and assistant Jana
Raymond watch as a class of youths and their sheep are judged Aug.
18 during the Grant County Fair in Moses Lake, Wash.
Department of Agriculture.
About 35% of Washington’s agri-
cultural fairs rely solely on volun-
teers. Other fairs have a combination
of paid staff and volunteers.
Finding paid staff can be a strug-
gle, too, she said.
“We’re all temporary events that
people take time off from their nor-
mal routines to participate in,” she
said.
Jim McKiernan, director of the
Grant County Fairgrounds in Moses
Lake, said the number of volunteers
has gone down in recent years. It
reflects the difficulty civic organiza-
tions and volunteer fire departments
also face in attracting volunteers, he
said.
He thinks it might be a “genera-
tional thing.”
“I think in the technology age,
people just don’t interact with each
other as much as they used to,”
McKiernan said. “That was part of
being a volunteer, was the social
aspect to it. That’s how you met
people, that’s how you met your
neighbors.”
It used to be more “innate” that
someone would volunteer their time
at the fair because they were show-
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Looking ahead
Shifting to online auctions
has allowed Cotton to help
from 1,200 miles away, as he
attends college in Stillwater,
Okla. A junior at Oklahoma
State University, he stud-
ies agricultural business and
pre-law.
He sees an “extreme”
need for agricultural attor-
neys, but hasn’t made his
final career decision yet.
He hopes to eventually
return to live in the Whitman
County area as a professional
auctioneer, selling real estate
and cattle.
“Eventually the end goal
is to be here in this office at
some point and continue the
legacy of the family in terms
of selling assets,” he said.
“Just continue on helping
people in the ag industry. ...
It does us great joy.”
Volunteers backbone of county fairs but are getting harder to find
By MATTHEW WEAVER
Capital Press
Carl Sampson .................. Managing Editor
ing animals or entering a competi-
tion, Thayer said.
But as one generation of volun-
teers begins to retire, she believes
the next generation coming in has
great potential.
“They want to be connected to
organizations and events that they
believe in, that they authentically
feel connected to,” she said.
The opportunity lies in speak-
ing to that generation “in their lan-
guage,” Thayer said. That includes
emphasizing how fairs raise dona-
tions for the community food bank
or to educate youth.
“Just rethinking how we gather
our volunteers is probably our next
step,” she said. “We are very proac-
tive in the fair world. ... We have a
purpose to serve. We need to make
sure we’re relevant to that purpose
for the next generation.”
Sandmann, the Grant County Fair
sheep superintendent, urges people
to just go ahead and volunteer.
“If you think you can’t do it,
you’re wrong,” she said. “If you’re
at all interested, at least try it.”
“People still have a yearning to
get back to some basic, family-style
roots and a fair kind of gets you back
to that,” McKiernan said.
“The fair is the fabric of our com-
munities,” Thayer said. “It’s a gath-
ering point. ... Whether or not they
have day-to-day commonalities,
they can come during the fair and
really connect together in a different
way, and your volunteers are at the
heart of that.”
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CALENDAR
Submit upcoming ag-related
events on www.capitalpress.com
or by email to newsroom@capi-
talpress.com. All times reflect the
local time zone unless otherwise
noted.
THROUGH SEPT. 5
Oregon State Fair: 10 a.m. Ore-
gon State Fair & Exposition Center,
2330 17th St. NE, Salem. The Ore-
gon State Fair continues through
Sept. 5. Website: https://oregon-
statefair.org/
SEPT. 2-10
Eastern Idaho State Fair: East-
ern Idaho Fairgrounds, 97 Park St.,
Blackfoot, Idaho. It’s fair time in
Idaho. Website: https://funatthefair.
com/general-info/
SEPT. 2-25
Washington State Fair:
10:30 a.m. Puyallup Fairgrounds,
110 9th Ave. SW, Puyallup, Wash.
The Washington State Fair is the
largest single attraction held
annually in the state of Washing-
ton. Closed Tuesdays and Sept.
7. Website: https://www.thefair.
com/
THURSDAY SEPT. 8
Farm & Ranch Succession
Planning and Working Lands
Easements: 12:30- 4 p.m. OSU Mal-
heur County Extension, 710 South-
west 5th Ave., Ontario, Ore. Attor-
ney June Flores will present on the
topics of succession and estate
planning, and how to prepare your
operation to be resilient for future
generations. Easement special-
ist Marc Hudson will answer your
questions about working lands con-
servation easements —what they
are, what they aren’t, and how they
may be helpful in executing your
agricultural business plans. These
in-person events are part of a free
6-workshop series in Lake, Har-
ney and Malheur counties. All are
welcome, and the events are free.
RSVP for these or any of OAT’s other
events and refer any questions
about the event to diane@orego-
nagtrust.org 503-858-2683
FRIDAY SEPT. 9
Farm & Ranch Succession
Planning and Working Lands
Easements: 12:30- 4 p.m. Burns Elks
Lodge, 18 N. Broadway Ave., Burns,
Ore. Attorney June Flores will pres-
ent on the topics of succession and
estate planning, and how to pre-
pare your operation to be resilient
for future generations. Easement
specialist Marc Hudson will answer
your questions about working lands
conservation easements —what
they are, what they aren’t, and how
they may be helpful in executing
your agricultural business plans.
These in-person events are part of a
free 6-workshop series in Lake, Har-
ney and Malheur counties. All are
welcome, and the events are free.
RSVP for these or any of OAT’s other
events and refer any questions
about the event to diane@orego-
nagtrust.org 503-858-2683
SATURDAY OCT. 1
Free Waste Pesticide Collec-
tion Event in White City: Rogue
Transfer and Recycling, 8001 Table
Rock Road, White City, Ore. The
Oregon Department of Agricul-
ture through the Pesticide Stew-
ardship Partnership is sponsoring
a Free Waste Pesticide Collection
Event. This event is an opportunity
for landowners, farmers and other
commercial pesticide users to rid
storage facilities of unwanted or
Capital Press ag media
unused pesticide products. Con-
tact: Kathryn Rifenburg, 971-600-
5073, kathryn.rifenburg@oda.ore-
gon.gov Registration for this event
is required by Sept. 16. Website:
https://bit.ly/3FIoyFE
SUNDAY-FRIDAY
OCT. 2-7
World Dairy Expo: Alliant
Energy Center, Madison, Wis. The
expo is the world’s largest dairy-fo-
cused trade show. Website: https://
www.worlddairyexpo.com
WEDNESDAY-THURSDAY
OCT. 5-6
National Cooperative Busi-
ness Association IMPACT Con-
ference (in person and online):
National Press Club, Washington,
D.C. The conference provides a plat-
form to re-energize the cooperative
movement. Website: http://ncba-
clusa.coop
WEDNESDAY-SUNDAY
OCT. 5-9
Trailing of the Sheep Festi-
val: Ketchum, Idaho. The five-day
festival includes activities in multi-
ple venues and culminates with the
big sheep parade down Main Street
in Ketchum. Website: https://www.
trailingofthesheep.org
CapitalPress.com
FRIDAY OCT. 14
MarketPlace.capitalpress.com
Federal Milk Marketing Order
Forum: 12:30 p.m. local time Kan-
sas City Marriott Downtown, Kansas
City, Mo. Hosted by American Farm
Bureau Federation, the forum will
explore solutions to FMMO short-
falls. Registration closes at noon
on Sept. 23. Website: https://bit.
ly/3QCo8Xp
facebook.com/CapitalPress
SATURDAY OCT. 15
Free Waste Pesticide Collec-
tion Event in Roseburg: Douglas
County Fairgrounds, 2110 Frear St.,
Roseburg, Ore. The Oregon Depart-
ment of Agriculture through the Pes-
ticide Stewardship Partnership is
sponsoring a Free Waste Pesticide
Collection Event. This event is an
opportunity for landowners, farm-
ers and other commercial pesti-
cide users to rid storage facilities of
unwanted or unused pesticide prod-
ucts. Contact: Kathryn Rifenburg,
971-600-5073, kathryn.rifenburg@
oda.oregon.gov Registration for this
event is required by Sept. 16.
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Index
Markets .................................................10
Opinion ...................................................6
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