Farm Director, KC Sheperd, is talking with the executive director of the Oklahoma Cattlemen’s Foundation, Mariah Reimer, about the campaign for a new headquarters for the Oklahoma Cattlemen’s’ Association.
“For the first time, the Oklahoma Cattlemen’s Association and the Oklahoma Cattlemen’s Foundation will be doing a capital campaign called ‘The Lasting Legacy Campaign to Preserve your Industry,’” Reimer said. “What is so special about this, and the reason it is such a once-in-a-lifetime, is because it is for a new building for the Oklahoma Cattlemen’s Association. A new home for our members, and really a representation of the strength of our industry.”
The Lasting Legacy campaign is a three-million-dollar capital campaign for the Oklahoma Cattlemen’s Association’s new headquarters. The new headquarters will be located in Oklahoma’s Stockyards City.
Since 1968, OCA has been in the existing office located in the historic Stockyards of Oklahoma City. The new building will feature more office space for staff, living quarters, an event center, an outdoor gathering place, and an all-around updated look and feel, while preserving the tradition that our current office holds.
“Where else would we go than Cowtown,” Reimer said. “That is where OCA’s home has always been.”
The new headquarters will be in the same place as the current headquarters, Reimer said, but it will increase in size, including an event center, a larger conference board room, a commercial kitchen, living quarters, an outdoor gathering space, and more.
Reimer said this new space will allow the OCA to host members and other industry leaders in a better capacity.
“A three-million-dollar campaign is a lot of money to people who are ranchers and farmers, but for us, it is bigger than that,” Reimer said. “We want to represent our industry how it should be.”
Having a new and improved headquarters, Reimer said, will allow the OCA to be represented well when hosting a multitude of organizations and individuals, whether from the Oklahoma Capitol or organizations such as the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association.
“This will leave a legacy for our association and our industry,” Reimer said.
This expansion will help OCA staff have room to have meetings, prepare for events, and more, Reimer said, as the current headquarters is not large enough to house every staff member at once.
“Right now, when we have something we need to do, we basically congregate in our kitchen at a small little table, and while we get the job done, you know, we work really hard to be able to do that for you, but to make it more effective will not only grow our industry and help us work more effectively for you, but it will take us to the next level,” Reimer said.
The campaign is not just about the building, Reimer said, but about leaving a legacy for generations to come.
“It is about being able to work effectively and being able to showcase our industry in a way that we can and to be able to do what we are doing for years passed, currently,” Reimer said. “I know when I am long gone that this building will still be there, and it will have an impact on those youth of our industry.”
There are different levels of contribution to the campaign, Mariah said, and some levels allow businesses and the brands of ranches to be engraved into the walls of the new headquarters. Contributions made to the campaign will directly impact the future of Oklahoma’s cattle and agriculture industries. The campaign will feature a variety of ways to participate in not only leaving your legacy, but preserving your industry. Many of these ways of giving are consistent with the missions, purposes and priorities of the OCA and OCF. They include online gifts, cash or check, sponsorships, pledge, employer matching, estate planning, endowments, stocks and bonds, livestock and more.
One unique way to help the campaign, Mariah said, is to donate a steer to the 10th Annual Steer Carcass Challenge on November 10th in Stillwater, Oklahoma. Fifty percent of proceeds from the carcass challenge will go back to the campaign, Reimer added.
“It is going to take everybody,” Reimer said.
For more information about the campaign and how to give, visit https://ocf.squarespace.com/giving.
