Memorial Tractor Ride Will Honor the Davidsons
Mark your calendars for Saturday, Aug. 16, the date for the third Memorial Tractor Ride, this year in memory of Jerry and Lorraine Davidson.
The event will be take off from Symerton and is being sponsored in cooperation with the assistance of the Village of Symerton and Symerton Tap, along with the Tractors for a Cure Organization.
This event is being planned to honor Jerry, a friend of the Will County farming community, as well past president of the Will County Farm Bureau and past Director of the Will County Farm Bureau Foundation; and Lorraine, past committee chairperson for the Will County Farm Bureau Women’s Committee.
Jerry and Lorraine were huge financial supporters of Tractors for a Cure and the Will County Farm Bureau Foundation. The proceeds from this event will be donated to St. Jude Children’s Cancer Research Hospital and to the Village of Symerton Park District in memory of Jerry and Lorraine.
The tractor ride will take off from the Symerton Park at 1:30 p.m. on August 16 and travel through the country around Symerton/Elwood/Wilmington and end back at Symerton, where participants will enjoy a time to converse with fellow participants and a pork chop dinner following the ride around 4:30 p.m.
Once tractors arrive back in Symerton, the tractors will be parked at Symerton Park for the “Cavalcade of Iron” tractor display, with restored antique tractors, as well as newer tractor models.
The pork chop meal will be cooked by Gordon McCoy and crew from the Will County Farm Bureau, Symerton Tap and the Tractors for a Cure Board. This event will be held in conjunction with the Symerton Homecoming set for August 15-17.
In addition to this tractor ride on Saturday, there will be live music at the Symerton Pub on Friday and Saturday evenings, and their annual tractor pull will be held on Sunday, Aug. 17, beginning at noon.
The entry fee to participate in the tractor ride is $100 per tractor/person, which includes a pork chop dinner at the end of the ride in Symerton. Ticket entry also gives participants a chance to win gift certificates and/or cash prizes, along with a complimentary T-shirt and goodie bag.
Tractor owners/drivers must have proof of liability insurance, and all participants must sign the release form and mail it in with the registration form by August 6 to participate in the tractor ride.
PLEASE NOTE: Preregistration is required by August 6, so we are prepared for the food needed. Additional pork chop meals are $25 each and must be preordered by August 6. No walk-ins for the meals can be accommodated the day of the event.
Plans are to have a people mover/barge wagon to transport those who do not have a tractor to drive but want to participate in the event just like a tractor driver does.
The $100 fee per person applies to those who go on the ride on a barge wagon and includes the pork chop dinner, along with the T-shirt and the goodie bag, and they will be eligible for cash prizes, too.
Registration/check in will be held from noon to 1 p.m. on August 16. The tractors will then line up by the Symerton Park at 1:15 p.m. to get ready for the tractor ride, with a 1:30 p.m. departure.
We hope the weather will cooperate with us this year, as it will be held rain or shine. We hope that more people than ever participate in this extraordinary event in Symerton to honor two great people of the agricultural communities of Will County.
In 2014, Tractors for A Cure Inc. became an official not-for-profit organization by obtaining the 501(c)(3) designation. All members of the Tractors for a Cure team volunteer their time for this great cause. Their reward is not a salary, but instead is the satisfaction of being part of a greater cause.
For more information on the ride or how to be a sponsor, please call Dean Bettenhausen at 708-243-8877, Gary Jurres at 708-417-8409, Ray Nugent at 815-592-3304, Ryan Nugent at 815-592-1978, Eli Geiss at 779-227-5075, Dan Lowe at 815-791-9251, Don Werner Jr. at 815-693-8952, Ray Dettmering at 708 -212-8814 or Terry Donovan at 815-693-8290.
Like us on Facebook, or visit our website at www.tractorsforacure.com. Emails can be sent to [email protected] if forms are requested to register.
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