Center Point Ag Mechanics
6th Place and "Humanitarian Award"
by Shirley Wright
February 25, 2010
(Article as printed in The Daily Times, Kerrville, Texas, February 23, 2010 by Tim Sampson).
Color Blind
By: Tim Sampson, The Daily Times
Published February 23, 2010
Four Center Point High School students — all girls — added a distinctive splash of color to the agricultural mechanics competition over the weekend at the San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo.
Their entry, a pink camouflage deer blind, was intended to help raise money and awareness of breast cancer — and it earned them the Chairman’s Humanitarian Award.
“Well, we placed sixth, which we were happy with, ’cause this was our first time ever doing ag mechanics,” said C. Coldwell. one of the team members and president of Center Point FFA. “But we were thrilled when we got the humanitarian award.”
The Center Point Team, consiting of Coldwell's close friends C.Smith, K.Smith and A. Walters, was one of two teams selected from among 483 projects that were exhibited for the humanitarian award.
The girls chose to use their project as a platform for Breast Cancer Awareness to honor a teacher at Center Point High School who is a breast cancer survivor. They also were inspired by the wife of another teacher, who is battling breast cancer.
“We wanted them to know they won’t be forgotten about,” said C. Smith., the vice president of Center Point FFA.
The girls spent four months and 270 hours working on the fully-insulated electric blind. C. Coldwell said the girls worked on the project several hours every night. The project was funded in part through donations, support from the school and money provided by their parents.
Although its black and pink color scheme may cause it to stick out to other hunters, deer can’t see color, so it makes no difference functionally.
The pink blind may have stood out as uniquely feminine among the other projects on display, but in recent years, the once male dominated field of agricultural mechanics has become open to both genders.
“I taught ag for 31 years,” said Rick Boles, a retired Ingram teacher and Kerr County ag mechanics expert. “For the first 20 years, I’d say it was male dominated, but in the last 10 years or so, you saw more and more girls participating and winning.”
The girls intend to show the blind at two more competitions in San Angelo and Houston, then they will sell the blind and donate the proceeds to breast cancer research. They’ve already started receiving bids and will continue to accept them for a few more months. Those interested can contact Center Point High School to make a bid.
“I’m very proud of the work they did,” said Center Point agricultural science teacher Courtney Hopper. “And what they are doing — by raising money — is a true demonstration of their character.”
