Prairie Grange consignment auction has something for everyone By Tricia Goecks Editor BOONE COUNTY – An exciting day for Boone County third grade students is when they receive their own dictionary from the Prairie Grange. The dictionary is part of the Words for Thirds program sponsored by the Prairie Grange that issues a dictionary to every third grade student in Boone County and to the third graders in the Christian schools in Rockford. More than just a dictionary, the Gazeteer includes biographies of all of the presidents, maps of the seven continents, the Braille and American Sign Language Alphabets, the U.S. Constitution, the months of the year, and the Declaration of Independence. One of the most intriguing items included in the dictionary is the longest word in the English language. And it is not supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. The 1,909 letter word is a tryptophan synthetase A protein enzyme that is made of 267 amino acids. Darlene and Al Henninger delivered the dictionaries to the students at St. James Catholic School in Belvidere and the Christian schools in Rockford. “I cannot believe you give them all to us for free,” Darlene Henninger recalled one of the students as saying. The students from Rockford Christian School wrote thank you letters and drew pictures for the Henningers. Many of the students referenced their favorite items including the longest word, the Braille alphabet and the continents. Third grader Audrey T. wrote “Thank you so much for getting me a dictionary. This is the first dictionary I’ve ever had. My favorite part of getting the dictionary is all of it.” Marisol drew a picture of the Boone County Fair. “Thank you for our dictionaries. I like the longest word in the English language and I love how you give out dictionaries for free! And thank you for the Boone County Fair!” Marisol wrote. “Thank you for the dictionary because I love the longest word in the English language, your friend Cameron,” wrote one boy who included a drawing of the globe. Cameron attempted to write the longest word because above the globe he wrote “methionylglutaminylarginyltyrosy – and so many more letters.” The Words for Thirds is made possible because of the proceeds that Prairie Grange receives from its annual consignment auction. Normally the auction is held in March. Because of the never ending winter of 2014, the auction was moved to Oct. 18 this year. “This is the only fundraiser we have,” Prairie Grange president Ruth Blasingame said. The proceeds funds the Grange’s sponsorship of the Relay for Life, Words for Thirds, Hometown Christmas, Food Cart Frenzy, courtesy carts at the Boone County Fair, scholarships and other community service activities. “It originally started out as a farm auction,” Blasingame said. It has evolved into its current form which includes farm implements, snow blowers, tools, kitchen items, pine trees, live chickens, car seats, bicycles, children’s toys boats, a school bus, RV, lawn mowers and more. “There s pretty much a buyer for everything,” Blasingame said. The consignment sellers began to stake out their plots shortly after the Fall Diddley ended on Oct. 12. While some sellers will put their items in available real estate, other sellers try to place their items in the same relative position year after year and based on which auctioneer is chanting down the row. “Bob Goad had a row, John (Henninger) had a row, Lyle (Lee) had a row, Johnny Edwards was with me,” Al Henninger said. At the auction, one of the items that received a lot of curious attention was a tandem. Throughout the day, people stopped by the blue tandem and checked it out. As the day neared to an end, the tandem was finally up for auction. It was purchased by Mark and Mike Carter who purchased it for a member of The Grove Church in Poplar Grove. The Carter brothers attempted to take the bike for a spin and quickly learned that tandems are difficult to steer. The Belvidere Daily Republican’s favorite junior reporter is a four year old girl named Jahzara. She found a box of stuffed animals that she wanted. She closed the box and put her foot on it as if daring anyone else to buy the item. The other buyers at the auction wisely did not get into a bidding war against the tot’s Gammy. As soon as the bidding concluded for the auction, little Jahzara learned that she also won in the auction a black and pink Hillary Duff backpack. It was the greatest treasure to the little girl who squealed with delight to the laughter of everyone assembled.
Posted on: Thu, 23 Oct 2014 16:35:38 +0000
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