SALEM, Ohio — The excitement of the grand and reserve champion hog sales faded. The crowd inside Sarchione Auto Group Livestock Complex fell silent as Nosey Nibblers 4-H advisor Bob Bearss prepared to read a letter Daniel Kibler’s family wrote to commemorate his life and time in 4-H.
Everyone listened intently as Bearss fought to maintain his composure, delivering the memories Daniel’s family chose to share.
“It was somber and there was a lot of tears running down cheeks, including mine,” family friend Ed Samec said. “I’m 6-foot tall, 290 pounds; I have a mohawk and I cried. I cried.”
Daniel’s sister, Sarah Kibler, guided his hog into the show ring and walked it back and forth in front of prospective buyers. Then, the auction began.
Daniel
Daniel was a happy, active, inventive 13-year-old boy who loved life on his family’s farm in Edinburg Township, nestled in the southeast corner of Portage County, Ohio.
There’s no signage telling passersby Kibler Farms spans land along both sides of Giddings Road. Driving past, it looks like a collection of smaller farms because that’s what it once was.
When Daniel’s grandfather, Bill Kibler, purchased the land in 1963, the modest operation started with 50 acres and a small brick house. It expanded over the years as he purchased adjacent farms.
Today, Kibler Farms is composed of six small farms and about 400 acres. It’s managed by Bill; Daniel’s uncle, Doug Kibler; and his dad, Kevin Kibler. Together, they farm about 700 acres with leased land — something Daniel wanted to be part of one day.
Daniel started helping out around the farm by mowing the lawn when he was 8 years old, just like his older siblings, Sarah and Kyle Kibler. He advanced to raking hay by the time he was 10. Raking hay was one of his favorite chores along with spreading manure, running the skid loader and baling hay.
“Any chance to get on something with an engine he was all over (it),” Kevin said.
While Daniel enjoyed helping out around the farm, he was most relaxed riding through the woods on his family’s property.
He started on his dad’s old 3-wheelers when he was 9 years old, and he was hooked. He would ride for miles, carving out new trails and finding adventures in every corner of his family’s farm.
Daniel loved riding around the farm so much that he saved up enough money by selling his 4-H projects to purchase a 4-wheeler at an auction in September 2022. He put 800 miles on it in the first four months he owned it, riding it just about every day through any patch of mud he could find.
“He loved it. It was therapy for him,” Kevin said. “Same as I did when I was his age. I’d come home from school — we had 3-wheelers back then — and I’d hop on a 3-wheeler every night after school and do the same thing. Just kind of ride around and clear your head or whatever. And he was kind of the same mentality. He just loved going out there and having fun.”
Every night after dinner, Daniel asked to go ride his 4-wheeler. Sometimes he rode with his cousin, Seth Besaw. Sometimes he made videos of his adventures to post on TikTok or YouTube or just to share with his mom, Holly Kibler, when he got back. Sometimes he’d just go out to explore to clear his head.
“He had his night rides he called them,” Kevin said. “He was always like, ‘I’m going on my night ride.’”
Daniel took his last ride on Feb. 1, 2023. He died that night from injuries suffered in a 4-wheeler accident on his family’s farm.
Daniel’s hog
Earlier on Feb. 1, Holly had signed Daniel and Sarah up for 4-H. Daniel typically took turkeys and hogs but had decided he only wanted to take a hog last year.
Initially, Holly emailed the local extension office to withdraw him from 4-H. However, after some thought, she and Kevin decided they wanted to donate his hog to the Portage County Junior Fair Market Livestock Sale Exhibitor Scholarship fund in his memory.
“It’s kind of a thing where the 4-H was so good to him over the years I decided to give back to it. That was our goal because it benefitted all the kids that go for scholarships. Going to college, it helps out. We thought it would be a good gesture,” Kevin said.
Kevin and Holly consulted with Bearss, a family friend who had also been Daniel’s 4-H advisor from the time he was a cloverbud until he joined Steakmakers 4-H Club with Sarah in 2022. Bearss helped them do the initial planning and reached out to the Portage County Swine Council to coordinate the sale. The swine council set up the auction, secured a pen for Daniel’s hog next to the grand and reserve champions, made a memorial banner to hang above his hog’s pen and promoted the donation hog sale on their Facebook page.
That was just the beginning of the support the Kiblers received as many who helped with the sale, made donations or did something else in Daniel’s memory wanted to help just because they knew the family.
“The Kiblers are the most loving, caring, gentle family that I know. They literally would give you the shirt off their back if it was their last one,” Samec said.
Polen Meats offered to process the hog for free. Steakmakers unanimously voted to use club funds to purchase a pen in the Sarchione Livestock Complex to dedicate to Daniel. Samec and his wife, Tracy, put together a honey basket full of their honey products to be auctioned off at the fair sale in Daniel’s honor. Southeast Portage County Lions Club donated a bench in memory of Daniel that now sits outside the swine complex at the fairgrounds. The teachers at Southeast Middle School, where Daniel was a seventh grader, made a tribute to him at their fair booth. Amber Zavara, a family friend, wrote buyer’s letters to make more businesses aware of the sale.
For Zavara, writing the letter meant returning a favor to a boy who had quietly and unknowingly boosted her self-esteem as she struggled to start her own landscaping business. Daniel had written Zavara buyer’s letters every year after she aged out of 4-H in 2019. Although she wasn’t always taken seriously as a landscaping professional, his letters made her feel like a respected professional.
“This little boy, who, when it was time to write these buyer’s letters, he thought of me and that was just really special for me,” she said.
Zavara’s letter called on the community to show up “with an outpouring of love.”
Auction
Nothing can prepare a parent to lose a child, and the same can be said for everything else that follows. Nervous, heartbroken, grieving and overwhelmed, Holly stayed out of sight, simply, desperately, hoping someone would purchase Daniel’s hog.
“Every time you go into an auction you say, ‘Please, just let someone buy this hog,’” Holly said.
When the auction started, a flurry of bids came in so quickly the Kiblers didn’t know who was bidding on Daniel’s hog — a bevy of buyers just kept bidding it up. As the price climbed, they saw Brad and Nancy Polen, of Polen Meats, who had regularly purchased Daniel’s and his siblings’ animals in the past, bidding against the representatives from Sarchione Chevrolet of Randolph.
Joe Sarchione kept his arm up and continued bidding until he won the auction and purchased the hog for $21,735. Then, he immediately donated the hog back to be sold again.
The second time, Polen Meats and Moore Well Services/AAA Plastics & Pallets purchased the hog for $9,660.
There were also several add-on buyers, including Bearrs and his wife, Julie, of Maple Bee Farm, $1,500; Bill and Gail Boldiszar, $100, and Jeff Kisamore of Kisamore’s Back to Nature Taxidermy, $60.
The basket of the Samecs’ honey products sold for $900 to Giulitto Trucking LLC in Ravenna, Ohio. The Samecs plan to continue donating a basket in Daniel’s name every year.
The combined generosity of the buyers who made donations in Daniel’s memory at the Portage County Randolph Fair on Aug. 23, 2023, totaled $33,955.
“I was just overwhelmed with the support that we got after his accident. And this was just way beyond anything we thought it would be,” Holly said. “I just never thought it would bring in that much money.”
Missing Daniel
There are still a lot of sad days and reminders that leave the Kiblers missing their youngest. Most days there aren’t words to describe the way his empty seat at the dinner table makes them feel.
“It’s something you never get over,” Kevin said.
On the anniversary of his passing, Holly looked at the photo book Wood-Kortright-Borkoski Funeral Home made for the family and read the comments that were left on Daniel’s online obituary.
The next day, they recounted the events that led to the sale of his hog last year in an interview with Farm and Dairy. They shared stories from his childhood and talked about his outgoing, goofy and thoughtful personality. They laughed, they cried and they expressed their gratitude for all the support they’ve received.
They also talked about their oldest, Kyle, who’s away at Ohio State University Agricultural Technical Institute studying diesel engine systems. They detailed Sarah’s interest in livestock production, which she’s fostered through 4-H showing almost every species of animal, and expressed pride in her involvement in the FFA as a senior at Southeast High School.
They talked about feeding the beef cattle with all of the children in their extended family on the farm every night. They talked about the future.
“It does hurt no doubt, but you just gotta do it,” Kevin said. “Part of the healing process is acceptance, I guess, and that’s where we’re at.”
