Benefit for fair board member exceeds expectations

(Photo by Marcene Heeren) Jeff Klemme, rural Akron, checks out some of the items that were donated for the Akron-Westfield FFA Alumni auction last Friday night. The bear sculpture with the welcome sign sold for $1,500. [Click to enlarge]

Akron-Westfield FFA Alumni members hoped for a good turnout at their benefit for fellow member Jeff Klemme on Saturday night.

The results far outweighed their expectations.

"We raised more than six times what we hoped for," Randy Kroksh, one of the benefit organizers said.

They planned to feed 600 people at their supper. More than 700 people showed up.

The live auction was held in the school auditorium between the girls and boys basketball games. There was standing room only in the auditorium, which seats 300.

The 12 items sold during the live auction alone raised more money than the group's total goal.

Blair Smith, a chainsaw artist from Westfield, donated four sculptures. A bear wearing an FFA cap and jacket brought a winning bid of $1,500. Dr. Tim Allard, who purchased the sculpture, donated it to the Akron-Westfield FFA.

A Harley Davidson wall plaque was purchased for $1,000, and the high bid for a standing pig sculpture was $900. Smith's fourth sculpture, a western wall plaque which opened the auction, sold for $350.

The night's top bid of $1,600 was for the Terry Redlin print. Other high bid items included a stained glass window for $800, a wooden barn quilt for $800, a Brett Favre autographed football, which sold for $550, and a king-sized crocheted afghan that sold for $400.

Other items that were auctioned during the live auction included basketballs that were autographed by all the members of the Akron-Westfield girls' and boys' basketball teams and a football that was autographed by the football team members.

More than 60 items were sold by silent auction, which was equally successful.

Klemme, who serves on the Plymouth County Fair Board and has been active in many other organizations, has an autoimmune disease. Chronic Inflammatory Demyelinating Polyneuropathy causes the body's immune system to attack its own nerves.

The rural Akron man is presently in a wheelchair and unable to work. He has been taking intravenous hemoglobin treatments in hopes that it will reverse the disease.

Kroksh said he and his fellow FFA Alumni members were overwhelmed by the turnout for the benefit

"It was just awesome, the way everything worked out," Kroksh said. "As a community, we're just ecstatic.

"People from all over Plymouth County, the state of South Dakota, and the state of Nebraska came here for Jeff and just opened up their hearts. It was just an overwhelming outpouring of love."