By: Julie Buntjer, Worthington Daily
Globe
WORTHINGTON — For the past 11 years, students
enrolled in Worthington High School’s Agriculture 12 class have spent the
better part of their final quarter of school repainting an old tractor and
making it look “good as new.”
Their latest project was a John Deere 630
with a three-point hitch and plow. The tractor belongs to Jon Weitgenant, who
has furnished the tractor in seven out of the 11 years since the program began.
In fact, the program was Weitgenant’s idea.
“I’ve been on advisory committees with the
FFA, and on the ag advisory committee with (Worthington Community College),”
Weitgenant said. “Somewhere along the line we were talking about projects. I
had my first John Deere then — a 730.”
Paul Karelis was the agriculture instructor
back then and gave support to the program. It continued through Jeff Rogers’
tenure at the high school and now Deb Martin is the lead ag teacher overseeing
the tractor painting program.
In exchange for having the high school
seniors paint the tractor, the owner gives a donation to the WHS agriculture
department and also pays for the supplies.
“It is fun to work with young people and
support their opportunity to learn,” Weitgenant said. Seven out of the 11 years
the students have painted a John Deere tractor from his collection. Other
years, they’ve worked on Internationals or Fords.
As is the case with some collector tractors,
the John Deere 630 repainted this year comes with a story. It was once owned by
Gerrit Teerink and his four sons, Ron, Norman, Robert and Merlin, spent many
hours working with the tractor on their farm north of Worthington.
After Weitgenant purchased it, it was put on
the waiting list for the restoration work. Weitgenant said he has at least
three more tractors, and he knows of someone else with two tractors, needing
paint — enough to keep the WHS Ag 12 students supplied with a tractor to paint
for the next five years.
Since the students only have nine weeks to
complete the paint work, Weitgenant utilizes equipment offered by Mike and
Steve Bousema to power wash the tractor to remove much of the paint and grease
before it arrives at the school.
“We took an alcohol wipe and wiped off all
the dirt and chipped paint as much as we could,” said Bradley Jansma, a member
of the Ag 12 class, of the first week they spent on the John Deere. Students
had just one and a half hours each day — the length of their class — to work on
the tractor.
“By the end of the third week, Dale (Martin)
had paint guns in our hands,” Jansma added. They started with the tractor, and
then worked their way to the hitch and the plow.
Dale Martin, father-in-law to teacher Deb
Martin, has helped with the tractor painting project as a teacher’s aide of
sorts for the past four years. He taught the students about the different parts
of the tractor and the techniques of using a paint gun.
“It was a real eye-opener for some of us,
really,” Jansma said. “Overall, the hands-on work and the experience from it
was pretty amazing. Just that Jon, Mrs. Martin and Dale let us get that
experience, it was pretty great.
“Dale always said the more time you stick
into a piece of equipment, the better it will look,” said Jansma.
There were 10 students in the class,
including five females.
“The girls make it look a little extra
special — they did some extra detail work,” Weitgenant added.
The public will have a chance to view the
tractor at the Fourth of July celebration at Pioneer Village, and it will be
driven by the Ag 12 class through the King Turkey Day parade in mid-September
as part of the Prairie Reapers contingent.
Weitgenant will also use the tractor to
participate in tractor rides with the Northwest Iowa Two-Cylinder Club, which
is based in Spencer, Iowa, and display it at the Clay County Fair in Spencer
this September.
Daily Globe Reporter Julie Buntjer may be
reached at 376-7330.
Original Article Here
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