Steer’s sale to fund scholarship in teen’s memory
OAKLAND — Daniel Ocumpaugh’s FFA steer project won’t go uncompleted despite the teenager’s death on Oct. 20.
The 15-year-old sophomore at Oakland High School was raising and training his first steer to show at the 2007 Douglas County Fair in August. Ocumpaugh died from injuries suffered in a motorcycle accident.
Friend and fellow Oakland student D.J. Kennedy has taken over care of the steer that will become a fundraiser for the Oakland FFA Daniel Ocumpaugh Scholarship Fund. Tickets are now being sold for $5 each for a drawing for two halves of beef as the steer will be butchered after Kennedy shows the animal at the state fair in September.
The drawing is scheduled for Sept. 14. Tickets are available at Barnes Heating & Cooling Inc. in Sutherlin, at the upcoming Oakland FFA dinner/auction, by calling Jill Kennedy at 459-3944 or at the Douglas County Fair in August in the beef barn or from Oakland FFA members.
In addition to the beef, some businesses have donated some other items for the drawing.
“When Daniel died, we didn’t want to turn the steer back out with the other cattle … we wanted to do something good with it to remember Daniel,” said Jill Kennedy. “We wanted to turn something tragic into a benefit for the FFA program. People have donated time and effort to the project.”
Ocumpaugh, the son of Lester and Nancy Ocumpaugh, had been working on the Kennedy’s cattle ranch in the Oakland area to pay off the steer. The younger Ocumpaugh had been elected the Oakland FFA junior president at the beginning of his sophomore year last September after being the junior vice president during his freshman year. He was a six-year member of the Hog Wild 4-H Group and had shown and sold project pigs at past Douglas County Fairs.
The Oakland FFA dinner/auction, featuring a pit barbecue, is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. May 3 in the Oakland Elementary School multi-purpose room. Tickets for that event are $7 for adults and $5 for students age 12 and under.
source: http://www.newsreview.info
