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Clark County FFA chapter places first in Heritage Award contest

October 06, 2010

The first FFA Heritage Restoration Award presented during the 23rd Annual Antique Tractor Show went to the Clark County FFA Chapter at George Rogers Clark High School.

Stefan Fink, a high school junior, helped his team take home $2,000 in first-place prize money donated by Purity Dairies and Dean Foods for restoring a Farmall Cub. Jesse Geasley, founder of the Heritage Restoration Award, rewarded the students’ hard work on Sept. 11 in Eagleville, Tenn., ceremony.

Three Tennessee high school FFA chapters also competed in the contest. Coffee County High School, with sponsors Adam Willmore and Christy Brown, bested the other Tennessee schools, winning the $500 second-place prize donated by Farm Credit Services. The Manchester students restored a Tennessee International 350 High Utility.

“The work ethic of these kids showed in everything from their storyboards to the paint job,” Geasley said. “The International 350 entered by Coffee County is a beautiful machine, and I think the top two spots were pretty close.”

“We had three very well-respected and knowledgeable judges from the Middle Tennessee area,” Geasley said. “Gary Farley is a long-time member of the Rutherford County Commission, Jim Clark is head of the Murfreesboro office of Farm Credit Services and Steven Hardy is a member of our business community well-versed in auto shop and body services.”

What may have pushed Clark County over the top goes back to a very old FFA tradition, according to Geasley.

“Presentation is a big part of FFA curriculum, from parliamentary procedure to speech-making, and that was drummed into me when I was in the FFA,” Geasley said. “Presentation is one of the categories on the judges’ cards, and the communication factor may have given the Kentucky boys a bit of an edge.”

Geasley said Fink, dressed in his official FFA jacket despite the heat, told of the restoration and his grandfather, the owner of the Farmall Cub, who died during the restoration process.

Matt Courtney, Justin Costner, and Justin Roberts represented Jefferson County, Tenn. They traveled from Dandridge to Eagleville with their sponsor Adam Martin, entering a restored M Farmall Diesel. The team won the Farm Bureau’s third prize of $250. The group reported a large number of show spectators interested in the Farmall and the restoration process.

“Forrest High School of Chapel Hill entered the contest with their sponsor, Josh Robison. They restored a 1950 John Deere,” Geasley said. “We’d been looking forward to seeing the results of their hard work, but a last-minute water leak cost them valuable points.”

The prize money will go to fund FFA projects back home for the schools that competed.

Geasley, looking toward the 2011 awards, said “The whole idea is to get young people interested in the values that inspired these old machines. It takes vision to look at something used and battered and see what it could be with hard work and care. It’s a history lesson, a way of building a bridge from the past to the future.”

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