It costs a lot to raise and exhibit an animal at the Stock Show. It takes a lot of time, feed and veterinary care to produce prize-winning livestock like those. Many of the young men and women busily blowing, brushing and tending those animals are members of a local 4-H or FFA programs.
When Don Weeks and Frank Neve attended the 1979 Fort Worth Stock Show, they realized that the prices being paid for the livestock owned and exhibited by 4-H and FFA youth fell below market price. They were going for a song. The hours of hard work these future ranchers were devoting to raising such impeccable specimens were just not being fairly rewarded. That was an injustice the two businessmen knew they could remedy.
In 1980, Weeks and Neve, along with a small group of Fort Worth businessmen, founded the Fort Worth Stock Show Syndicate.
4-H and FFA members gain valuable experience raising their animals, but they also count on the sale of that livestock to provide the dollars needed to further their education. The Syndicate helps meet that need by means of the James M. Norman Scholarship Fund, as well as their numerous fund-raising efforts, and by generously committing to pay fairly for their purchases at the Sale of Champions, which is held the last Saturday of the Stock Show each year. The Syndicate has put their money where their mouth is for the past 34 years and has agreed to paying top dollar for the animals purchased, rather than merely cleaning out the bargain basement, at the annual sale.
Their efforts and generosity have paid off. They have awarded thousands in scholarships to FFA and 4-H participants who are interested in earning an agricultural or life sciences degree at a Texas college. So far, the Fort Worth Stock Show Syndicate has raised more than $26.5 million for the youth exhibitors of the Fort Worth Stock Show and has provided more than $500,000 in scholarships to worthy recipients. Today the Fort Worth Stock Show Syndicate is the largest single financial supporter of the Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo. For more information or to get involved, go to fwsyndicate.towerdigital.us.
