Auction + good cause = world's most expensive lamb

MONTICELLO — We interrupt the steady stream of news about divisiveness, about tumult, about conflict and infighting, with a story from the heartland that suggests the human default may yet be getting along and pulling together.

A few weeks ago in the southeast corner of Utah, the San Juan County Fair took place, as has been the case for longer than anyone can remember, at the fairgrounds in Monticello. On the fair's last day, Aug. 10, it was time for the junior livestock show and auction, where kids in the 4-H club show off the steers, goats, lambs and hogs they've spent the year fattening up.

The auction was moving along smoothly, if uneventfully, when it was time for Alise Lewis to step into the arena and show her lamb.

Alise is 17, a senior at Monticello High School. She plays on the volleyball and golf teams, is president of her school's National Honor Society chapter, and has been auctioning off lambs at the county fair since she was 5, always putting the money she raises into her college fund.

But this year Alise had a different plan.

As she and her lamb entered the arena, she handed the announcer a statement she asked him to read.

It began with a thank-you to the junior livestock program for all the lessons it's taught her. Then Alise's statement said this:

"I usually save the money I earn from the sale of my lamb for college. This year I would like to do something different. I would like to donate the money I raise to Ryan Imlay and Bodell Nielson. Ryan was involved in a swimming accident this summer, and I am hoping the money I donate will help him on his long road to recovery. Many days of work and even their original wedding day have been missed, and I am hoping to help lighten their burden with a donation."

Imlay's accident had occurred three weeks earlier when on a family outing he dove into a lake, hit his head on the sand, and shattered one vertebrae and cracked another. The news had spread quickly throughout San Juan County. Everyone knew Imlay and Nielson, who had to postpone their wedding date, were facing a rough stretch of road. He was in the hospital, fighting to walk again, when the auction took place.

'Sell it again!'

As the announcer finished reading Alise's statement, Kurt Lewis, her dad, nudged his wife, Tamra Lewis. "Watch what happens next," he whispered, "I have a feeling we're going to witness the goodness of America."

Then the auctioneer started his patter.

The lambs before this one had been pricing out at an average of $6 a pound. Alise's lamb raced past that before the auctioneer could clear his throat. Hands shot up at a frenetic pace, until finally the auctioneer declared "sold" to Travis Shumway — for $54 a pound.

Alise had just raised nearly $8,000 for Imlay and Nielson.

As Alise walked her lamb out of the arena, she wore a satisfied smile on her face.

But she hadn't made it out the gate before Travis Shumway shouted to the auctioneer that he would pay what he bid, but he wanted to turn the lamb back in so it could be auctioned again.

This time the bidding was, if anything, even more spirited, until it closed with Chad Shumway's winning bid of $44 a pound.

A beaming, if slightly bewildered, Alise again headed out of the arena.

Until Chad Shumway shouted, "Sell it again!"

Again, hands shot up throughout the arena, until Justin and Stephanie Ivins prevailed with a bid of $34 a pound.

There's just a goodness in these small communities'

Until proven otherwise, Alise's 144-pound lamb goes down as the most expensive lamb in history, sold for $19,008.

Describing the scene for the San Juan Record in her story titled "Lamb for Sale: Going once, twice, three times!," reporter Sally Jack wrote, "By now, folks were laughing and crying at the same time, but mostly crying, while shaking their heads in wonder at the goodness and generosity of people in this community."

Said Kurt Lewis, "They probably could have auctioned it a couple more times."

As for a bewildered Alise, "I was a little bit nervous going in," she confessed. "But I knew I had such a great community behind me. But it went way beyond what I thought. I didn't expect that to be the outcome at all."

Even better, by the time Imlay and Nielson received the generous donation a few weeks later, Imlay was out of the hospital and able to walk again, if haltingly, and the couple were able to get married in a quiet at-home ceremony.

Summing up the story of the lamb, the accident, the kind girl, the auction and the willing bidders, Kurt Lewis said, "What it's about is a young couple that needs help and the goodness of small towns; not that big towns don't do it, but there's just a goodness in these small communities that look out for their own. I'm a firm believer there are a lot of people out there who want to do good; they just need the right cause."

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