Brenda Sturgeon made sure she told her family that winning wasn't guaranteed at the Washington County Agricultural Fair in Chartiers. And even though she thought their pigs, her son, her daughter and her nephew looked like champs as they entered, she said not to be upset if the animals didn't fetch a high per-pound fee at auction.

Her nephew's pig sold for $1.65 a pound, while her son Layton's was auctioned off for $11.50 a pound.

But then Lenny, the pig her 13-year-old daughter, Rachael, raised and showed this year, was named grand champion and sold for $135 a pound.

And at 265 pounds, that means the girl went home with a $36,000 check last weekend -- which fair officials said set a state record and possibly even a national one. Officials are checking national stats.

"I was in awe. I was just amazed. I couldn't be more grateful and happy it happened to my daughter," Mrs. Sturgeon said about Range Resources buying the animal. "I can't believe someone would help a child that much."

Bruce Cowden, a fair board member and livestock division adviser, said the Fort Worth, Texas-based oil and gas company, which has a division in Southpointe, had reinvigorated the live auction, where the youngsters involved in 4-H and the Pennsylvania Future Farmers of America sell the animals they've raised and showed in the fair.

"I don't know if I can put it into words," he said. "And it isn't just Range. They have opened other businesses up to what's happening in rural America."

Since the company has participated in the auction, Mr. Cowden said the net proceeds have "easily increased by as much as $150,000."

And that doesn't include repairs the company made to the show arena in 2006.

Matt Pitzarella, public affairs director for Range Resources, said the company spent about $100,000 at the livestock auction this year, which he described as a sort of "Super Bowl for rural Pennsylvania."

This year, he said, Range also invited 15 of its service providers to participate -- and helped contribute to a $26,500 pool of cash that allowed each of the 265 students who showed animals to receive at least $100 for their efforts.

"These kids put in a lot of work and a lot of their own money," he said. "We didn't want any of them to walk away empty-handed."

Mr. Pitzarella explained that Range chose the animals it bid on in part by where it was raised, with a preference placed on communities where the company has active drilling operations. He added that the animals purchased by Range were then donated back to the fair to be auctioned off a second time, with that money going toward scholarship funds.

But the spokesman also said Range Resources wanted to do more -- something with a broader scope -- to help rural Pennsylvania.

To that end, the company last weekend announced a new scholarship program for the Pennsylvania FFA.

Mr. Pitzarella said the $100,000 scholarship, which he called the first of its kind on the East Coast, would provide 100 Pennsylvania students with $1,000 awards next year based on academic achievement and financial need.

He added that because Range's operations were centered in Washington County, 25 of those scholarships were earmarked for students attending McGuffy or Fort Cherry high schools, the only districts that offer Pennsylvania FFA programs there.

"If they apply, those kids are almost guaranteed a scholarship," Mr. Pitzarella said, adding that the company would gauge the response to the program in its first year before deciding whether or not to establish a long-term endowment.

Mr. Cowden lauded the program and Range's "good neighbor" approach.

Mrs. Sturgeon, of McDonald, agreed, saying the money her daughter received would be stowed away until the eighth-grader goes away to college. It will go a long way, she said, toward Rachael's dream of attending Ohio State University to major in veterinary science.

In the meantime, she said her daughter had asked for two things:

An island vacation with two of her friends and a go-kart.

"I told her I wouldn't let her go on an island vacation with her friends if she was 21, let alone 13," Mrs. Sturgeon said with a laugh.

"But the go-kart? I told her 'absolutely.' "

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