Hannah Schacherer, Marketing and Communications Intern

Throughout the months of June and July, cows began appearing throughout the town of Litchfield, Minnesota. Not real cows, but 18 fiberglass cows were placed around town as a fundraiser for local nonprofit organizations. A way to celebrate First District Association’s 100^th anniversary, we partnered with the Litchfield Downtown Council to put on Downtown Cowtown.

Downtown Cowtown started as an idea to bring more traffic through Litchfield, while recognizing the 100^th anniversary of our Cooperative. This idea was brought forth by one of our employees, Troy Gassman. “I was in Buffalo, Minnesota, and noticed they had several painted buffalo around their town, and thought we should do something similar to celebrate our 100^th anniversary,” he said. Troy brought the idea to the Litchfield Downtown Council, and together they started ordering cows and calves to place around Litchfield.

At First District Association, we pride ourselves on having a culture where we care for people and the relationships we have, whether it is with industry professionals, customers, employees or the community. With the help of donations from our contractors, who assisted with our recent plant expansion, we were able to order the fiberglass cows. A cow or a calf was given to 18 local nonprofit organizations, who decorated them in unique ways. With the help of our community, eight cows and 10 calves were then placed outside of businesses around Litchfield. The cows and calves became a popular attraction throughout the summer, as people from the community and surrounding towns were able to go on a scavenger hunt to find each one, with some people taking and posting photos with the different cows.

On Aug. 26, people from Litchfield and the surrounding area joined together at the Litchfield Civic Arena for the Downtown Cowtown auction. With the help of the Litchfield Downtown Council and all who bid on the cows, more than $36,000 was raised for the participating nonprofit organizations.

Each cow was associated with a nonprofit organization, and the final bid for each cow was given directly to the respective nonprofit organization. These organizations were pleased with the successful outcome of the Downtown Cowtown auction, and First District Association was overwhelmed by the bidders’ generosity, the Downtown Council’s participation, and the community’s overall support.

Below are the Values of each cow after the auction: