Over $45,000 Raised Monday At The Oklahoma National Stockyards- Helping Marine Bill Broadie With His Steaks For Troops Movement

It has become a tradition of December. For the sixth year, the cattle buyers in Oklahoma City who buy thousands of cattle annually paused on the day of the last sale of the year and said thanks to those who are in our armed services and are the protectors of our freedom by "bidding" on a single calf in the sale ring. This tradition happened again on Monday at the Oklahoma National Stockyards where 8,500 cattle went through the sale ring and were bid on- but a single calf weighing 690 pounds was sold- and resold multiple times for a grand total of just over $45,000- all to benefit the All American Beef Battalion. 

 

 

Standing beside the auctioneer was the Chairman of the AABF, Bill Broadie of Ashland, Kansas. Broadie was in Vietnam in the late 1960s and came home unappreciated, as did so many soldiers that were in that war. He resolved that current members of our military should not have to feel like they were outcasts as he did when he returned from Vietnam fifty years ago. He and other like minded folks organized the All American Beef Battalion "to support our brave troops fighting the global war on terror." Learn more about the Battalion by clicking here for their website, Steaks for Troops.

 

One of their annual fundraisers around the country has become the calf fundraiser at the Oklahoma National Stockyards each December. The National Livestock Credit Corporation and affiliated companies have led this fundraising effort, with their CEO Robert York encouraging the Stockyards and all of the order buying firms to step up and be a part of this sale. 

 

York is grateful for the support- "Many organizations and individuals have joined together for this worthy cause each year. The efforts of many have made this successful and we thank all our partners and friends for their help. Through these auctions, approximately 22,000 troops have been fed an American ribeye steak upon their return home from deployment."

 

The 2015 sale resulted in $45,304 being raised- and that pushes the total raised down through the past half dozen Decembers to over $260,000 for the Steaks for Troops movement. Broadie told the crowd at the Stockyards on Monday that each soldier and in many cases, members of their immediate families, get a large ribeye, potato and corn cooked up by volunteers, who have several times, fed over five thousand at a time.