Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
COLFAX — Local auctioneer and junior at Oklahoma State University, Cotton Booker, will be competing in the National Auctioneers Association International Auctioneer Championship in San Diego this Friday, July 29.
Booker, who won the NAA Junior Auctioneer Championship in 2018 at age 16, will be competing against 52 professional auctioneers from the United States and abroad.
Competitors will perform in front of a live audience, and will be judged on qualities such as chant, voice timbre, and body language.
This is not the first time the Booker family has been represented in the international auctioneering arena.
Hailing from a family of competitive auctioneers, Booker’s cousin, Chantel Booker Kimball, will be contending in the women’s division of the competition this year.
Another of Booker’s cousins, Camille Booker, won the women’s 2011 IAC championship, and his father, C.D. “Butch” Booker, won the men’s 2008 IAC championship.
“It’s almost a family reunion here in San Diego,” said Butch shortly after arriving on Monday. “It’s an accomplishment to see him make it into the level that he has at a young age, that’s a good feeling,”
This family legacy has long been a part of his life, Booker says.
“I was three months old at my first NAA Conference & Show – that’s when my grandpa was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2002,” Booker told the IAC. “My first family vacation memories are of the whole family going to NAA Conference & Show. To get to compete again, but this time in the same division my dad won, well I just hope I can represent our family well.”
The competition is just one event at the 73rd International Auctioneers Conference & Show where auctioneers will be able to polish their skills.
“There’s a lot of education, it just helps us sharpen our saw and become better at what we do,” said Butch, who has attended the conference every year since 1993.
Booker says that he hopes to make the competition a recurring tradition as well.
Those interested in spectating have the opportunity to watch Booker’s performance live on the organization’s social media profiles.
Reid Thompson is an intern reporter at the Whitman County Gazette. Reid is enrolled at Syracuse University, where he studies journalism and international relations.
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