Contact: Dolores (Mohr) Kenyon
E-mail: dolores@wiclarkcountyhistory.org
Surnames: Oldham, Moen, Kopp, Canfield, Kren, Gerhardt, Bryne
----Source: Clark County Press (Neillsville, Clark Co., WI) 8/31/2022
FFA Students Urge Public to Share the Road With Tractors (2022)
Courtney Oldham and Emma Moen display the yard signs and stickers that have been distributed around the Neillsville community, urging people to slow down and share the road with tractors and other farm equipment.
Submitted photo
By Valorie Brecht
“Slow down, be patient and save lives.”
That is the message Neillsville FFA students want to spread through their safety campaign, featuring signs and stickers encouraging drivers to slow down around farm vehicles and share the road.
Neillsville FFA students Emma Moen, Courtney Oldham, Jacob Kopp and Bridget Canfield attended the Washington Leadership Conference in Washington, D.C. earlier this summer, representing the Neillsville FFA. The conference inspires FFA members to be change makers in their communities by finding ways to serve others. By the end of the week, FFA members work to come up with a “Living to Serve Plan” that they can implement in their communities.
“Courtney and I were both looking at doing a project related to farm safety and driving. Then, as it happened, the week we went was the same week of Tom Kren’s accident. So being there and realizing his accident had happened at the same time, caused me to want to do something about it,” said Moen.
Kren, of Neillsville, was killed in a tractor-semi accident south of Neillsville June 7.
The FFA group checked with Kren’s family to see what they thought about the FFA doing a campaign in Kren’s memory.
“Tom’s family was really grateful to have us raise awareness,” said Oldham.
The FFA students started planning what their campaign would actually look like. They had a brainstorming session while traveling back from Washington. The four students, trip chaperone Sandy Oldham and then-FFA teacher Amy Gerhardt put their heads together to figure out the best way to promote their idea. They decided to make an acronym using the word “family,” inspired by a Facebook post from Neillsville’s new agriculture teacher Carla Byrne.
“She had put a post on Facebook talking about how farmers are someone’s family member—they’re someone’s dad, mom, aunt, uncle, cousin, brother or sister. So, we decided to use the word ‘family,’” said Moen.
FAMILY stands for “Farmers Are Moving. I will Look and Yield.”
“It was a very powerful experience to work together and create such a meaningful campaign,” said Gerhardt.
Moen and Oldham took the lead on the project. JBC Screenprinting helped them come up with a design for stickers and yard signs. They started with 250 signs and 1,000 stickers. They and other FFA members passed out more than 100 signs at the Clark County Fair.
“A lot of farmers were very grateful to see that we were doing this. Most of them have been involved in an accident or a close call while on the road,” said Moen.
The duo also distributed signs and stickers to local businesses, including Unity Bank, Associated Bank, Gross Motors, Citizens State Bank and Mama G’s Consignment Shop. Soon, the signs started popping up in yards throughout town and in the country.
“It’s been really cool to see the community get behind this,” said Oldham.
The campaign has also spread beyond the central Wisconsin area. An agriculture teacher from the southern part of the state attended the fair and wanted to get her FFA students involved in spreading the message. Signs have been sent as far away as Tigerton. Posts about the safety campaign received 110 shares on Facebook.
“We were keeping it pretty local at first, but hopefully we can expand it now. We hope the message spreads because a lot of people are affected,” said Oldham.
“We just want people to be more aware when they’re driving. You never know when you’re going to come across a farmer, especially during planting and harvesting. Just slow down, be patient and you can help prevent an accident,” said Moen.
There is no cost for the signs and stickers, but the Neillsville FFA is collecting freewill donations that will go toward purchasing a billboard in the area so the message can reach even more people. Donations are being accepted at the sites with the signs and stickers.
Moen will be a Neillsville High School senior this year and Oldham will be a first-year student at Chippewa Valley Technical College in Eau Claire.
