Colteryahn family wins Eagle Bowl
CONNOQUENESSING TWP — Straw hats, baseball caps, cowboy hats and tiaras bobbed forward in the audience as people in the livestock barn leaned in, waiting for the names of the Eagle Bowl winners to be announced at the 75th annual Butler Farm Show Special Awards Program. After much anticipation — and a drum roll — the silver Eagle Bowl was presented to the Colteryahn family of Connoquenessing Township on Friday, Aug. 11.
Cheri Gallagher, Butler Eagle advertising representative, presented the Colteryahns with the award.
“The Butler Eagle awards a silver bowl every year to the Butler Farm Show family that participates extensively with a high degree of success while volunteering time and talent, providing leadership and demonstrating good sportsmanship,” Gallagher said prior to announcing the winners. “It is not the number of acres or crops that the farm produces, but how the family reaches across the many departments.”
The Colteryahns raise sheep on their 62-acre farm, which has been in their family for more than 60 years, they said. While this is their first time winning the Eagle Bowl, Kati and Ryan Colteryahn are veterans when it comes to the farm show.
Both have participated in the farm show for decades, they said. Their three children, Rylee, 15, Raislee, 9, and River, 7, help out on the farm and at the farm show.
“Both parents work off the farm to financially support the family’s farming goals,” Gallagher said. “The dad maintains equipment and does field work; the mom does the early morning chores and coordinates all farming activities. The three children work with the animals, feeding and exercising the livestock.”
Following the awards ceremony, a long line of farm show participants and friends formed to congratulate the family. The Colteryahns greeted and hugged them before stepping away to take a picture with their extended family.
“We come from generations of, you know, farm showing here,” Kati said. “It’s really important to both our family and extended family, and it’s like a second farm show family to us. We’re close to a lot of people, and they mean a lot to us.”
Winning the Eagle Bowl reflects a lot of hard work, she said. This year, the entire family showed pigs, cows, breeding sheep, market sheep and goats and participated in the livestock sale.
“Our kids worked really hard with their projects,” she said. “They put a lot of time and effort in exercising and washing, loving their animals when they can. So it’s not all about winning, you know, there’s a lot of hard works that goes into it. It’s not all about the ribbons, but the ribbons are nice to have.”
To celebrate, she said the family would join the farm show participants for free ice cream outside the livestock barn.
This is the 70th year that the award was presented at the farm show, Gallagher said. More than 50 families have won since the first Bowl was awarded in 1952.
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