FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SAHEC DINNER AUCTION RAISED $56,000 FOR SCHOLARSHIPS
Stamp provides keynote address.

CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo., April 12, 2002 -The Sikeston (Mo.) Area Higher Education Center (SAHEC) dinner auction to benefit student scholarships raised $56,000 this year.

The dinner auction was held April 6 at the Sikeston Ramada Inn. The auction raised $6,000 for need-based and merit scholarship funds. In addition, $50,000 was donated from various companies and individuals to set-up five new scholarships.

The companies and individuals honored for their contributions for the five new scholarships include: Noranda Aluminum of New Madrid, Mo., two scholarships will be created in their name; Lewis/Kingsway Furniture of Sikeston, Mo., one scholarship will be created in their name; Emilye Garner of Dexter, Mo. `, one scholarship will be created in memory of her husband, Wilford Garner; and many other donors, whose contributions will form a general scholarship.

Charles Stamp Jr., president of the agricultural division - Global AgServices - at Deere & Company, spoke at the dinner. His twenty-minute speech touched on the institutional extension of learning, service and freedom.

Stamp began his address with a challenge for everyone. He said, “pick your hallway, pick your lush green campus with impressive edifices, real or imagined, and let’s join together to solidify those ideas that brought us here and allow us to leave this evening emboldened to do more.”

Stamp’s keynote address focused on his experiences at Southeast Missouri State University and the importance of teachers. “We all identify with the ideas that we can’t be taught, we can only learn and that, when the student is ready, the teacher will appear,” Stamp said. “I am personally much indebted, both to this community and to Southeast. On this campus, I was nurtured in a non-judgmental environment.”

Stamp stressed the important of personal service to our community, state and nation. “Service is about time, our most precious human resource. Reflect upon your stroll across campus. Was it the extension of the friendly hands from those of this quite noble profession that caused your indebtedness? Was this not where the real learning occurred? My father always told me never to pass up the opportunity to be around those smarter than you. So shall we all find ways to mentor through service?,” said Stamp.

Lastly, he addressed the topic of freedom. “And so we live another generation blessed with freedom. It must be, hero in Southeast Missouri, our Plan A to enlighten human minds so that freedom dwells to its fullest. President Bush said in the aforementioned State of the Union, we must upgrade our teacher colleges and teach training and launch a major recruiting drive with a great goal for America: a quality teacher in every classroom,” he said.

Throughout his address, Stamp quoted several well-known individuals, including Mark Twain, Lee Iaccoca, Judi Dench, Louis L’Amour, Martin Luther King, Franklin D. Roosevelt, President George W. Bush, Harry Truman, and General Eisenhower.

“I know that everyone who has witnessed your collective work with the Sikeston Higher Education Center and in the University as a whole salutes your efforts. As do I,” said Stamp, in closing remarks.