Wildcat Wednesday: The Cattlewomen

Kansas State University’s Collegiate Cattlewomen club is a tradition of beef promotion, advocacy and education. As a senior member and retiring office, it’s my privilege to share a brief overlook of our organization with you, with a little personal anecdote.

I am a small town girl, from a rural community like many of you. Mine happens to be a bustling city of 160 located in North Central Kansas. It is like any other small community: everyone knows each other, we see each other at church on Sunday mornings and at 4-H club meetings on Sunday nights, etc. Though I loved my town, at age 18, I was more than eager to spread my wings and relocate to Manhattan, Kan.

Through the first two years of my undergraduate degree, I found a major (and a minor), a connection with my professors, a strong group of friends and a few extracurricular clubs to be in – but something was missing.

While the College of Agriculture at K-State is extremely tight-knit and welcoming, I needed something smaller, something closer and I didn’t know what that was until I joined Collegiate CattleWomen. My junior year I found exactly what I had been missing the entire time – a community.

I quickly felt a sense of belonging. Though we all came from different backgrounds and towns of various sizes, we were all there for the same initiative, fueled by a passion for the beef industry.

Here’s what we’re up to:

Let me start with beef promotions…In the last two months alone, we have completed 13 beef promotion events across the state. These range from cooking demonstrations in grocery stores to supplying beef sticks at marathons. Traveling to do these beef promotions makes a friendly face available for mothers, kids and consumers to strike up a conversation about our industry, our practices and products.

Next, our philanthropic endeavors…This year will mark the eighth annual Tough Enough to Wear Pink Campaign(TETWP). It’s one of K-State’s largest student-run philanthropic fundraisers. We partner with Sigma Alpha professional sorority to put on a week-long breast cancer awareness and research fundraiser. At the end of the week we present the funds from our TETWP t-shirt sales and donations to the Susan G. Komen Mid-Kansas affiliate.

EAT BEEF Merchandise….Have you seen those EAT BEEF license plate tags with the Powercat in the middle? That’s us. We sell those!  We also sell EAT BEEF t-shirts, sweatshirts and baby onesies. The profit from the sales allows us to travel to our beef promotions and attend the Cattle Industry Convention and Trade Show.

Really, so much more…K-State CCW is an extremely active organization on campus and in the community. From K-State Cattlemen’s Day to fun social meetings for our members, CCW offers a multitude of opportunities for young women to get involved.

It is incredibly interesting how each member finds their niche. Some are avid public speakers and enjoy speaking with consumers, others are endearingly passionate about supporting breast cancer research, and still others are wonderful sales people. Some are natural leaders and coordinate so we all work cohesively. In the end, it just all works out – just like any unified community does – just like each sector and individual of the beef industry does.

I think that sense of needing something more, needing some kind of camaraderie isn’t just inside a girl missing her small town, I think it’s in us all and we find it in our innate sense of belonging and community in the beef industry.

~Heather

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