Though downtown Madison feels a little empty without 101 fiberglass cows grazing its sidewalks, proceeds from a live auctioning of the bovines will help fund a new children's hospital on the University of Wisconsin campus.
Beth Blum, UW Hospitals and Clinics director of annual giving, said the auction for CowParade Wisconsin will be held at the Alliant Energy Center Nov. 10 at 8 p.m. UW Hospitals and Clinics selected 44 of the cows for the live exhibition and auction, Blum said, and another 39 will be auctioned online.
Online bidding for specially selected cows will begin Nov. 11 at 12 a.m. and will close Nov. 21, she added. But Blum also said bidders should try not to have their heart set on a certain cow, as 18 of the bovines will not be sold in either auction for various reasons.
Overall, Blum said they expect to raise a combined $250,000 from both auctions to build the new American Family Children's Hospital on the UW campus.
"We select the top cows, the ones we feel will bring in the most amount of dollars in a large auction setting," she said. "So we picked what we thought were the best prospects, and the rest were bought back by sponsors."
Sponsors who supported many cows were allowed to keep one of them after the exhibition, Blum said.
Another reason UW Hospitals chose not to auction all the cows, she added, is because the auction would simply last too long, possibly discouraging people from attending. Blum said the goal was to have as many people participate as possible and to have them bid as much as possible.
In some cases, Blum said, the cows were severely vandalized after they came off the streets.
"Luckily none of [the cows] had damage to the extent of not being able to be repaired," she said. "The folks at Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board are spending a lot of time and energy to try to repair those cows."
Greater Madison Convention and Visitors Bureau president Deb Archer said the auction will not be the only way CowParade will impact the city.
According to Archer, the cows attracted tourists to the downtown area throughout the summer and into the fall semester. The artistically designed cows were particularly popular among families with children, she said, and made Madison an even more attractive place to visit.
"I think [CowParade] has really enhanced the visitor experience here," Archer said.
Blum added anyone who wants can purchase a cow, but some of the cows had such an impact on Madison residents that they are raising money to purchase one in auction. An area middle school has raised more than $6,000 to purchase a cow designed by one of their teachers, she said.
"It's a wide variety of people who buy the cows," Blum said. "People buy them for their businesses, and individuals buy them to have in their backyard."
Tickets for the live auction can be purchased at www.friendsgala.org.
