A total of 20 students participated in Drive Your Tractor to School Day
By Diego Flammini
Staff Writer
Farms.com
Nearly two dozen high school students traded school buses and other means of transportation for farm machinery.
A total of 20 students from Nelson County High School in Lovingston, Va. drove 12 tractors and two gators to school for Drive Your Tractor to School Day on Sept. 23. Other ag students helped park the tractors once they arrived.
The school’s Future Farmers of America (FFA) chapter organized the machinery parade, which included a Minneapolis-Moline G900 and John Deere 7810. The route started at the local Farm Bureau office while a police escort ensured traffic cooperated to allow the tractors to travel safely on route to the school.
Students welcomed the opportunity to bring a piece of farm life to school to share with their classmates.
“What’s not cool about driving a tractor to school?” Jack Rodgers, an 11th-grade student who drove the Minneapolis-Moline G900, told the Lynchburg News and Advance on Monday.
The event is also a way to bring students together to talk about farming.
Nelson County High School has an enrollment of 640 students, some of whom may not be from farms.
A lineup of tractors in the school’s parking lot “brings awareness to agriculture education,” Sarah Harvey, vice-president of the school’s FFA, told the Lynchburg News and Advance.
The community was pleased to see such a unique event.
“Good old Nelson County,” Phyllis Morris posted on ABC 13’s Facebook page. “I grew up there and there is no other place like it. It had to be a special treat for these kids. Yahoo to them.”
Farms.com has reached out to the local FFA and Farm Bureau for comment.
Margaret Seaman/Facebook photo