By: Staci Miller, Paulding Ag Education Teacher
In honor of National Ag Day which was March 19th, the Paulding FFA planned a Tractor Safety day to educate youth about tractors and farm equipment. The Paulding FFA Chapter held their annual Tractor Drive-in day on Friday, March 24th to celebrate National Ag Day. The chapter felt that with agriculture being the #1 industry in Paulding County that youth needed to know the proper safety procedure to take around farm equipment. The safety day was made up of three different stations that the elementary and FFA students traveled through. The first station was sponsored by Ohio Farm Bureau and the presenters were Matt Adams and Jen Wilson-Oechsle from Ag Credit who talked to the youth about tractor roll over protection and did a demonstration with the students as well as grain bin safety and entrapment. The second station was sponsored by Truland Equipment and its presenters Steve Doster and Jason Dunham. They brought in a utility tractor with a loader and mower and talked about the physical dangers of tractors and the importance of the slow-moving vehicle sign. Finally, the third station was sponsored by the Paulding FFA and it was “Touch a Tractor.” The Paulding FFA members and the students who drove tractors showed the students their tractors and allowed them to climb up in the tractors and explore them. This year we had a record number of students drive tractors to school with 16 tractors coming in from small to large and every brand in between.
Those students consisted of Tyler Schlatter, Blayne Pease, Alan Griffiths, Jesse Shaffer, Makenna Dunham, Jalyn Klopfenstein, Anna Clemens, Johnny Lipps, Quinton Burns, Mariah Klopfenstein, Kayleigh Dunham, Grady Barton, Jamy Hunt, Megan Manz, Nick Hatcher and RJ Wirts. The Paulding FFA Chapter has made Tractor Drive-In Day a tradition over the past few years and we wanted to add to this event with a safety program this year. The chapter enjoys this day very much and they also enjoy learning about agriculture. National Ag Day is a day to recognize as well as celebrate the things provided by agriculture. The National Ag Day program wants people to recognize and understand how food products are produced, why agriculture is so important, and so much more. The students who drove their tractors to school were greeted by representatives from our local Beck’s dealer who sponsored donuts, milk and free hats for all the drivers. At the end of the safety day students received shirts from Beck’s Hybrids that said I survived Ag safety day along with a goodie bag of items from Ohio Farm Bureau. We are so thankful for the support of these local community organizations who made this day possible. We had over 400 students participate in our safety day. We plan to do this again next year. The Paulding FFA Chapter continues to learn and understands how important agriculture is to the world and gladly celebrates agriculture each day during our agriculture education classes offered at Paulding.
