Valentine’s Day began with a bit of a twist this year at Cornerstone University. Instead of Valentine sweethearts, people were kissing cows.

The contest titled, “Kiss a Cow,” was an event put on by the CU division of Y.E.S., or the Young Educators Society.  Y.E.S. president, Katie Wiggins came up with the original idea for the competition.

Wiggins came up with the idea for “Kiss a Cow” while brainstorming fundraising ideas for Y.E.S. last fall. She thought that it would be fun to see popular faculty and students compete amongst each other in a game of chance. The “reward” would be the chance to smooch a cow in front of the entire student body.

A calf was selected as the subject to be kissed. The provider of the animal was Rob Steele, a farmer from Caledonia.

“I originally put an ad up on Facebook and Craig’s List, but they weren’t yielding much of anything. Finally, Rob answered an ad that I had posted at Ada Bible church,” Wiggins said. “He said that he would lend me his calf for free. We couldn’t resist such a great offer, and were so glad for his help!”

Students and staff participated by dropping money into the jar of their chosen contestant at a specified table in the Corum. The select staff-member or student with the greatest earnings at the end of the competition would have to kiss the calf at the end of chapel on February 13.

Participants included Evensong leader Kyle Bos, associate dean of leadership development Dave Murdoch, President Joe Stowell, director of campus security Rich Honholt and director of ministry development Gerald Longjohn.

After a week-long voting period, the money was counted. The results ended up revealing a tie between Rich Honholt and Gerald Longjohn each had raised $34.76. Total funds raised came to $91.04. 

On February 13, Honholt and Longjohn were presented with a pair of calves to bestow their smooches upon. Both did the act nobly, to the amusement of the many outside observers. The kiss took place immediately after chapel on Friday.

“It was pretty hilarious, a definite mood-lifter to my Friday,” CU freshman Hillary Poynor said.

Honholt and Longjohn found humor in the experience as well.

“It is an honor and blessing to participate in extras such as this to help our students and their cause, and provide the community with a laugh,” said Honholt. “As far as kissing the cow, it was a moooooooving experience, but I’ll stay with my wife of 41 years.”

The proceeds of the event went to Y.E.S.’s annual funds. These earnings are then used to help pay for special trips and the honorariums for speakers.

Y.E.S. was founded in the fall of 2007. It is currently headed by professors Keith McAdams and Rondy Brown. It is a program founded on the basis of promoting education as a career choice and supporting high school students in their endeavors to pursue a teaching career in their college studies.

“Y.E.S. at CU is designed to expose our students in teacher education to administrators and other educators already in the field that can share their pearls of wisdom with them,” associate professor of education, Rondy Brown said.

The students of Y.E.S. have put on several speaking seminars, and have recently taken a trip to Chicago, where they participated in community service and visited several cultural museums. They hope that the funds earned in this event will assist them in future excursions.

“We really appreciate people donating. We know the economy is tough. People are faced with tough payments on college and stuff, so we really appreciate this,” Wiggins said.