Alpha Gamma Rho (AGR) Fraternity has been contributing to the social and professional success of young men at ABAC since December 10, 2011. AGR is a fraternity sharing a common bond within global agriculture and is committed to fostering the highest values and providing each and every brother with superior lifelong personal development and professional success.
AGR was proud to announce that they have initiated 10 new brothers to their chapter in Fall 2018. The fraternity now has 36 active brothers dedicated to the premier brotherhood in agriculture.
AGR fosters connections for young men who are pursuing careers in the food and fiber industry. Those interests include food science, biotechnology, agricultural marketing, environmental science, and many other agriculture-related fields. The agricultural industry relies heavily on networking and AGR provides an opportunity to do just that.
The newly elected president of AGR, Ben Burkey, exudes appreciation for his experience in the fraternity. As he says, “I enjoy being a part of AGR because we have such a strong network for academic, social and professional experiences at our fingertips. AGR is the brotherhood formed between not only brothers that are in our chapter here at ABAC, but with members across the nation.”
In addition to promoting career success in agriculture, AGR strives to contribute to the community by hosting philanthropic events. After months of planning and promoting, the fraternity encouraged those with a heart for giving to saddle up for the Alzheimer’s Race For a Cure Barrel Race.
The event was held on September 22 at the Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College Rodeo Arena. The event consisted of an open show and a World Barrel Race League sanctioned race. AGR welcomed a crowd of 250 people with 114 competitors for a day of barrel racing fun in honor of those who are battling Alzheimer’s disease.
The cost to ride in the open show was 25 dollars while an additional fee of 25 dollars was required to compete in the World Barrel Racing League event.
AGR is grateful to have worked with 18 businesses who were eager to sponsor the Alzheimer’s Race For a Cure Barrel Race.
The barrel race was quite a success as the fraternity was able to raise 3,700 dollars from the event. All of the proceeds that were raised were donated to the Tifton Alzheimer’s Association in order to help fund the Walk to End Alzheimer’s in October.
The ABAC Alpha Gamma Rho chapter holds the Tifton Alzheimer’s Association in high regard. Burkey explains that this cause is important to their chapter because “our founding fathers had family members who were affected by Alzheimer’s disease. Tifton Alzheimer’s Association has been very appreciative of everything we have done while working with them and in turn, we are grateful that they are always in attendance to the barrel race”.
All 36 AGR brothers pitched in to show their dedication to the cause. The brothers pulled the event together by doing jobs that include registration, parking, moving and repositioning the barrels, driving the tractors and working with the event announcers.
Burkey asserts that the AGR fraternity regards philanthropy to be of utmost importance as “it provides an opportunity to become an active member in the community and shows a positive image of Alpha Gamma Rho in our community.”
On October 27, the fraternity plans to continue their support of the Tifton Alzheimer’s Association as they participate along with 31 other teams in the 2018 Walk to End Alzheimer’s event at ABAC.
Registration for the walk begins at 8:00 a.m. and the walk will begin at 9:30 a.m. AGR encourages all who are able to join them in supporting the cause by participating in the Walk to End Alzheimer’s.
