Dozens of individuals took to the Batavia Country Club range Wednesday, June 21st to support the Monroe Tractor Agriculture Scholarship. Customers, vendors, and various Monroe Tractor employees participated in a day of golf to raise money for a good cause.
While all players participate for a good time, the focus of the event is the scholarship. Every year, a young adult graduating from high school and pursuing a degree in agriculture is selected by the scholarship committee. This individual then receives $1,000 at the end of each successful academic year to help cover the costs of higher education, for a maximum of $4,000 over four years.
Numerous players commented on the importance of incentivizing young individuals to pursue careers in agriculture. One customer remarked that they hope their children can apply for the scholarship in a couple years’ time.
“The scholarship alone helps, but it’s great that a local company is giving back to the community,” remarked one customer.
This year’s fortunate recipient is Claudia Drechsel from Holley, NY. Claudia spent her high school career going above and beyond. Some of her highlights include graduating with a 4.0, compressing four years of education into three, going on a foreign exchange trip to Austria, and being a member of the Orleans County Fair board. And that’s only a handful of what she has accomplished in the last four years.
Claudia will be continuing her education at Morrisville State College to study Agriculture Business Development. With that foundation, she wishes to become an advocate for farmers and to spread modern and sustainable farming techniques.
Farm Family Insurance took the lead this year with a score of 65, 7 under par. Not many of the “pig balls” – special golf balls that each team tried not to lose over 18 holes – made it all the way to the finish. Kathy Allen from Maura’s team and Craig Linderman from the Linderman team made it to the end, however, and had an exciting putt-off. Craig made out victorious with a putt of about 10 feet.
2017 marked the 19th year of the Monroe Tractor Agriculture Scholarship, and next year’s 20th anniversary game is already planned for June 20th, 2018. We hope to see you there!
