2022 Annual Report

A STAPLE IN THE RINER COMMUNITY Teel Family Fund Carries on Family’s Deep Connection to Town

In Teel Gymnasium, Bull Teel celebrates with the Auburn boys’ basketball team after the team returned from Richmond as state co-champions in March 2020.

For decades, Gene A. “Bull” Teel was a fixture at Auburn High School in Riner. Whether you spotted him keeping the clock at the boys’ or girls’ basketball games, standing on the sidelines at football games as a member of the chain gang, or sharing his wisdom during an agriculture class, Bull was an integral part of the school he graduated from in 1970. Toward the end of his life in early 2022, Bull expressed that he was worried about continuing to contribute to his community after he was gone. To ensure the Teel family’s continuted impact on Riner,

Bull and his family created the Teel Family Fund, which will provide scholarships for students from Auburn High School, with a preference for student athletes enrolled in agricultural coursework at the high school level, or to student athletes who display an interest in agriculture. “Bull spent his life touching lives. He loved his school and his community,” said Leigh Ann Teel, Bull’s niece. “We feel very blessed to have chosen the Community Foundation to manage the fund for us. Setting up the fund was very easy.”

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THE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF THE NEW RIVER VALLEY

Photo by Ashley Dawn Photography