A brand new record was set for the NAFB Foundation’s annual fundraising auction Thursday night – $22,295! Not sure how much it beats the old record by, but last year the total was about $13,000, so this was a biggie.
A big reason for the huge success this year was the generosity of two NAFB past presidents – Evan Slack and Rich Hull. They each bought and donated back the #2 NAFB Foundation Ertl model tractor – for $2750 EACH. That tractor ended up bringing in a total of about $7000 for the foundation and I think Evan ended up taking it home. These are the last of the special edition NAFB Foundation tractors, which have been sold at the auction in seven series for the past seven years.
Orion Samuelson, the original NAFB Foundation president, once again served as Master of Ceremonies for the auction. First he was honored with a special video presentation marking his 50 years at WGN. “I don’t want people to get confused that this is a retirement,” Orion said. “It isn’t. I’m having too much fun doing what I’m doing.”
I did a quick interview with Orion and asked him about the history of the NAFB Foundation, which he helped to start many years ago. Listen to or download that interview here: Orion Samuelson