Friday, October 17, 2008 10:12 PM CDT
CHS FFA tractor restoration project up for national award
By DAVE FOPAY, Staff Writer
dfopay@jg-tc.com
CHARLESTON — Restoring an antique tractor last year was partly to get the Charleston High School FFA chapter ready for a larger restoration project, but organizers of a national award think the start itself is pretty good.
The chapter’s restoration of a 1949 Farmall H tractor is a finalist in a competition that will be decided at next week’s FFA national convention in Indianapolis. Chapter member Justin Thomas, a CHS junior who led the project, said he didn’t know what to expect when the chapter sent in its application to the contest.
“I was actually pretty shocked,” he said of his reaction at learning that the project was a finalist. “I didn’t think, with our first year, we would be selected.”
Chevron Products Co. sponsors the tractor restoration competition, and the CHS project is one of 10 finalists in the event’s chapter competition. Three other Illinois schools, Fairbury, Manlius and Forreston, are also among the finalists along with schools from Texas, North Carolina Nebraska, Indiana and Alabama.
The national FFA convention begins Wednesday, and that’s the day for presentations by the finalists that judges will use to decide the winners, which will be announced Friday. There’s a separate competition for restorations by individuals, and the grand prize in each competition is $2,500 while the first runner-up gets $1,500 and the second runner-up will receive $1,000.
CHS chapter Adviser Julie Niemerg said the chance at the award is a big boost for the chapter, which used the project as a springboard to a second, more difficult tractor restoration.
“It’s very exciting,” she said. “It’s kind of above and beyond our expectations. That was practice. This is an honor.”
Now, Thomas is working on the presentation for the judges on Wednesday that will show the work, what they learned from it and “that we did it ourselves,” he said. He’ll make the presentation along with 2008 CHS graduate Matthew Snoddy and current students Jon Thomas and Cody Blagg, who were some of the students who worked on the tractor.
Niemerg said if the project does win one of the prizes, the money will be used to send chapter students to leadership conferences and other FFA events.
Meanwhile, the chapter is well into the new project, restoring a 1953 Super M Farmall tractor that was badly damaged in a fire and sat in a field for some time. The work could be completed early next year and the chapter plans to sell raffle tickets for chances to win the tractor, as it did with the first one.
Niemerg said both tractor restoration projects have raised interest in the chapter, and some students who aren’t chapter members or taking agriculture classes have helped. The recognition the projects have received have been a great benefit to the students, she added.
“A lot of these guys never expected to be presenting on a national stage,” she said. “It’s been neat watching them go to the next level.”
Contact Dave Fopay at dfopay@jg-tc.com or 348-5733.
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61912 wrote on Oct 17, 2008 10:47 PM:
A deserving result of hard work and dedication!
Best wishes on your presentation at the competition. You should all be proud! "