FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SAHEC ANNOUNCES SPONSORS FOR UPCOMING DINNER AUCTION

CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo., March 22, 2002 - Several area businesses have stepped forward as sponsors of the Sikeston Area Higher Education (SAHEC) dinner auction planned for April 6 at the Sikeston Ramada Inn.

Noranda Aluminum in New Madrid, Mo., and SEMO Title, Health Management Facilities, Charter Communications and Pullen Brothers Trucking, all in Sikeston, Mo., have each provided $1,000 to help support the upcoming event.

"As usual the people of Sikeston and the area community have just stepped up and are really willing to help and are very supportive of raising money for scholarships," said Judy Buck, director of SAHEC. "Nobody ever says 'no.'"

In addition, Lewis/Kingsway Furniture Co. in Sikeston has made of gift of $10,000 to the Southeast Missouri University Foundation to endow a scholarship for students attending classes at SAHEC. The scholarship has been named the Lewis/Kingsway Furniture Scholarship. Also supporting SAHEC is Noranda Aluminum, which has made a gift of $7,000 to provide an annual scholarship for an electrician and a mechanic studying at the Center.

The SAHEC dinner auction event, scheduled for 6 p.m., is designed to raise need-based and merit scholarship funds for the 1,000 students who attend the Center, Buck said.

"At present, there are only two designated scholarships available," she said. "To continue to provide financial assistance to students, a successful dinner auction is a necessity."

Entertainment will be provided by the Southeast Missouri State University Jazz Combo.

Charles Stamp Jr., president of the Worldwide Agricultural Equipment Division, Global AgServices, at Deere & Company, will be the keynote speaker.

"There are a lot of people really excited about Charlie Stamp coming back here," Buck said.

Stamp was born in Ironton, Mo., on July 22, 1949, to Charles Ray Stamp, Sr., of Des Arc, Mo., and the late Wilma Jean Davis Stamp, originally of Piedmont, Mo. He was raised in Cape Girardeau and Sikeston, Mo., and graduated from the Sikeston public school system in 1967.

He received a bachelor of arts degree from Southeast Missouri State University in 1971. He was a member and officer of the Sigma Chi fraternity, played collegiate golf and was a member of the Pre-Law Club. Stamp is a graduate of the University of Missouri School of Law in Columbia, Mo., where he received several academic awards. He practiced law in Sikeston, Mo., from 1974 until 1981 and served as city attorney, president of the Sikeston Jaycees and was a recipient of the Distinguished Service Award.

Stamp now resides in Atlanta, Ga., with his wife Cindy. Stamp has one son, Jason, who is a graduate of The Savannah College of Art and Design of Savannah, Ga., and of the Portfolio Center in Atlanta. He is an art director with the CORE Agency in St. Louis. Stamp is a member of the Peachtree Road United Methodist Church.

Stamp formerly was president and chief executive officer and a member of the board of directors of InterAg Technologies, Inc., an Atlanta-based agricultural electronics manufacturing and computer software company, which he co-founded while also serving in investment banking services businesses in Charleston, S.C. Under Stamp's leadership, the company grew from three employees in 1988 to more than 900 people in both the United States and Europe by 1999, when Deere & Company acquired the company.

Today, Stamp serves as a corporate vice president of Deere & Company and as president of the Worldwide Agricultural Equipment Division- Global AgServices. He previously served as president of John Deere Special Technologies Group of which InterAg formed the core of a diversified electronics, navigational, wireless communications and information systems operating division of Deere. This coming fall, he will assume the Washington, D.C.-based position of vice president, Governmental Affairs for Deere & Company.

Stamp entered the agribusiness industry in 1981 as president and chief executive officer of Meyer Agri-Products, Inc., a company which later became a division of Butler Manufacturing Company of Kansas City, where he served as a division vice president. A former board member of the Farm & Industrial Equipment Institute, he served as president of its Agricultural Equipment Division. He is a member of the Bennett Agricultural Roundtable, a group of approximately 100 agribusiness leaders from academic, production agriculture and agribusiness who direct the Farm Foundation. Stamp is a member of the board of directors and Executive Committee of the Association of Equipment Manufacturers. He is a member of the Missouri Bar Association.

Deere & Company creates smart and innovative solutions, in the form of advanced machines, services and concepts, for customers on the farmsite, worksite and homesite worldwide.

Dinner auction tickets are $35 each. A reserved table of eight is $350. Tickets are available in Sikeston at the Sikeston Area Chamber of Commerce, the Sikeston Area Higher Education Center and First State Bank and Trust. In Dexter, tickets are available at the Dexter Chamber of Commerce and Dr. Bill Kane's Office. In New Madrid, tickets are available at the New Madrid Chamber of Commerce, the Bank of New Madrid and from Steve McPheeters at Noranda Aluminum. In Charleston, tickets are available at the Charleston Chamber of Commerce, Citizens Bank, Deline Agri Products and L & S Pharmacy. Tickets also are available at the East Prairie Chamber of Commerce and the University Advancement Office at Southeast Missouri State University.

For more information, call Jane Cooper Stacy, Southeast director of development, at (573) 651-2930; Judy Buck at (573) 472-3210; or Michael Parker, campaign chairman, at (573) 471-4007.