There will be no 12th annual Tractor Day in Ridgetown this June.
Instead, school officials at Ridgetown District High School (RDHS) are working with the students to put together a new event with a stronger focus on education. That event would take place near the start of the school year in September.
RDHS Principal Elsa Natvik says cancelling Tractor Day was a difficult decision, but notes that once school officials learned there were some liability concerns -- particularly with the ever-growing student tractor parade -- they had no choice but to axe the event.
That decision wasn't imposed by the school board, though.
A note in the minutes of the Lambton-Kent District School Board's meeting on May 8 clarifies that the cancellation of Tractor Day was not a board-level decision. It also points out that "the LKDSB and school administrators do not regulate what students drive to school," opening the possibility of students still driving tractors to school -- just not as part of a school-sanctioned event.
When it comes to finding a replacement, Natvik says the school is planning to shift the focus back to the heart of what Tractor Day was meant to represent.
"The first few years of [Tractor Day] was really, 'What is agriculture to our community?' and we would have events around that," says Natvik, who was part of the group that founded the event at RDHS when she was still a teacher at the school. "When I came back as principal, the first thing I noticed was that it had gone away from the educational piece of agriculture and it was just focused on the tractors and the pride of being an agricultural individual in a town."
Natvik says one of the first -- and biggest -- challenges they faced when confronted with the liability issues was how to have a Tractor Day without the tractors.
"It really became how do we re-vamp this and bring it back to the intention of the event in the beginning, which was to celebrate agriculture," says Natvik. "So, it was decided we would do something in the fall... we're looking at doing an RDHS 'Country Fair Day' now."
Natvik says the new event -- tentatively set for September 27 -- will include vendors, public health officials, and other community groups with information on what services are available to students. The event will also have a distinct "Country Fair" theme, with contests such as the tallest corn plant, the largest pumpkin, and pie eating/making contests.
The planned event is expected to bring back a solid focus on education, especially how agricultural practices have changed over the years. That focus includes students reaching out to organizations like the Heritage Tractor Club to show how harvesting has changed over the years.
Natvik says the students have come around since the decision was first announced back in October, but notes they were clearly disappointed at first.
"[The students] love the new idea. They were very disappointed in the loss of Tractor Day, but like I said to the students, 'How can we have a Tractor Day without tractors?'" says Natvik, noting they will still have a year-end assembly and some year-end activities in June.
In the months since the decision was announced, students have been communicating regularly with Natvik on how to answer that question. Those answers helped to form the plans for the new Country Fair Day that is planned for September.
"[The students] were the ones that brought up 'Why can't we bring in an implement that shows how you used to mill corn or something like that?'" says Natvik. "And then, how do we do that and show how that has changed through time?"
Natvik says they are still in the process of reaching out to multiple agricultural groups in the Ridgetown area in order to complete a list of vendors and displays, but the plans are really starting to take shape.
"I am very proud of the students for voicing their opinions on [the cancellation of Tractor Day]," says Natvik. "I'm also extremely excited to be working with the students to put together this event in the fall -- they're the ones that are leading it... it's going to be a pretty exciting event."
