State Sen. Mike Kehoe paid $300 for Molly Suthoff's ham during the Cole County fair's Ham Breakfast and Auction.
She's giving half of that to Dr. Tamara Hopkins' office, "where they will take in donations to help buy wigs or other needed things for people who are undergoing chemo," Suthoff, 11, explained. Her grandmother currently is one of those chemotherapy patients.
Ham Breakfast/Auction organizers have said over the years that's one of the benefits of the program.
Rudy Veit, an attorney at the Carson & Coil law firm, buys at least one ham every year and paid $700 total for two this year.
"We like hams," he quipped, adding, "It's for a good cause, when you look at the number of kids out here.
"A retired circuit judge once told me he'd never sent a 4-H kid to prison - and there's a reason for that. It's a very good organization."
Students from both the 4-H and FFA programs participate in the project, which involves selecting a ham to be cured, then learning and doing the curing process.
"It's a great way to teach somebody how to do something and how to learn a new skill," Suthoff, from St. Thomas, told the News Tribune. "It can be hard at some times - especially, like, washing them.
"You have to put a lot care into it, and whenever you do do it, you have to make sure you're doing it right - otherwise, something like this (blue ribbon and successful sale) won't happen."
Alicen Jennings, 17, sold her ham for $275.
"This is a great way of course to make a profit but also to get my name out," she said. "Since I'm not really from a farm family, this is a great way for me to connect (with) the community better. I would hope that it would benefit me more in the future and also enable me to help others."
Jennings attends Jefferson City High School and Nichols Career Center, and she is president of the Nichols FFA chapter.
"Agriculture is all around us," she said. "I want to get it out to the people that it's not all about just cows, sows and plows. It incorporates everything, from clothing to medicine."
She's considering a career as a doctor or veterinarian but said agriculture "impacts us in everyday life, and I think that agriculture is the greatest industry that America has to offer."
Suthoff and Jennings were two of the 64 students who cured hams and sold them at Friday morning's auction.
Another nine students prepared and sold bacon.
All told, the students raised more than $25,000 from the sales, and each student keeps the money used to purchase his or her ham or bacon (except for a small fee FFA and 4-H charge for handling the paperwork and the money).
Nine candidates in this year's elections spent a total of $4,725 buying 11 hams and two bacons.
Public officials - Kehoe, state Rep. Mike Bernskoetter and the three Cole County commissioners - spent $1,600 buying three hams and one bacon.
Presiding Commissioner Sam Bushman said no taxpayer money was used to buy the commissioners' $600 ham.
"These are our citizens of the county," he explained. "This is the next generation that's going to be here in Cole County. We've got to support them.
"We want to keep them here, keep them farming and keep them, you know, making our county the best county there is in the state of Missouri."
Kehoe added: "It's a great program for these kids. I think both the (livestock) sale Wednesday night and the (ham and bacon) sale this morning - every time you talk to one of these kids about what they're doing with the money, they're saving it for college" or other good causes, like Suthoff's donation to cancer patients.
Seven area banks - Central, Community Point, Farmer's (Lohman), Hawthorn, Jefferson, Legends and Mid-America - paid a total of $5,425 for 15 hams and one bacon.
Central, Community Point and Hawthorn banks each bought three hams.
Legends Bank led the group by buying three hams and the bacon.
"We support our customers and the community," said Mike Hoelscher, vice president of the bank's Taos branch, who soon will move to Jefferson City when Legends and Home Savings Bank merge later this year. "This is a great organization, 4-H, and the kids work really hard and do a good job for the community.
"And, hopefully, they'll put the money to good use."
Hoelscher said all the banks, which compete for business, have a friendly competition when it comes to supporting community events like the students' fair projects.
"The people of Cole County, Osage County - they're all very lucky to have the banks they've got," he said.
By far the largest support for the students' projects came from 27 separate businesses or individuals, paying $12,300 for a total of 36 hams and bacons.
Scruggs Lumber's Bob Scruggs explained: "We're here to support the community - that's what it's all about. The young kids work hard at it."