Worthington Farmer’s Parade Gains Popularity

by Ryan McLaughlin

Worthington’s Farmer’s Parade went off on Tuesday as scheduled with 53 entries.

The Worthington Farmer’s Parade is a celebration of the farming history of Worthington and is celebrating its seventh year as part of the Worthington Carnival. Antique cars, tractors, and milk trucks rolled down Main Street (Old Route 422) for the half-hour parade.

Amy Sedgwick is announcer and also one of the judges for this event. She explained that there are different categories for the cars and the tractors, and that they chose the three for each that drew the crowd’s attention most. This year, they also had a monetary prize planned for the three.

“We’re a farming community, we’re a milk community,” Sedgwick said.

Judges were seated near Bowser’s Feed Store.

Connie Feeney, parade chair, helped explain how the event is formed. She starts planning the parade in March.

“I have an area list of the local farmers, and I send the invitations out the first week of May,” she explained. “I’ve got information (for the car clubs) so they can participate as well.”

However, the cars are individually entered and judged. Therefore, the winners are the owners of the cars, not the car club as a whole.

Feeney also explained why the parade starts at 7 PM.

“The reason for that is the farmers, depending on what the weather is like, whether or not they have to be in the field until a little bit later, that they all can participate,” she said.

She said the parade went on smoothly this year.

In total, there were 53 entries into the parade – which was more than last year’s 37 entries. The volunteers hope that the parade continues to grow.

Mayor Kevin Feeney was assisting with the organization of the parade and also looked forward to future parades.

“Every year it gets bigger and better,” Mayor Feeney said.

Out of those 53 entries, the judges only could had pick six total winners: three tractors and three cars or milk trucks.

Among the three tractor winners, Bill Reed took first place with his New Holland Baler or being unique. The judges had never seen anything like it before, and they were impressed.

Damien Ishman won “Mud in the Middle” for having mud on his tractor tires and being between two other tractors with muddy tires. Ishman was also one of only three tractors with muddy tires.

Tim Bowser took third place as “Judge’s Favorite,” as they liked his tractor.

Among the vehicle winners, Sydney Fair took first place with the oldest car, for his 1931 Model A.

Jon Hendrickson took second place with his 1966 Mustang for the having the best Classic car.

Cody Evans took third place with his 2012 Peterbilt milk truck for the Milk Truck category.

Parade festivities will continue on Thursday with the annual Firemen’s Parade. The Worthington Carnival continues all week near the Worthington-West Franklin Fire Department and Worthington Park.

No Comments

No comments yet.

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI

Leave a comment

You must be logged in to post a comment.