JB Dewar’s Tractor Restoration Education Program
For over 22 years, JB Dewar, Inc. has hosted a Tractor Restoration Education Program for high school students in San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties on the central coast of California. This program mimics the Chevron Tractor Restoration Competition and helps students work to restore the classic farm tractor. Each competitor puts an average of 350 hours of labor into their restoration projects.
While the physical restoration tends to be the students’ favorite portion of the competition, it is only one aspect of the program. The competition is judged on three key components: the restoration, an oral presentation, and a written logbook of their restoration journey. The goal is to provide a learning opportunity that will serve kids well no matter where their futures may take them. Our competition takes place every year in July. In 2022, we had a great turn out with seven tractors restored!
Our 2022 winners were:
1st place: Cierra Cowden, age 16, 1951 Ford 8N 2nd place: Analisa Jorgensen, age 15, 1967 Cub Lo Boy 3rd place: Brett Lipscomb, age 16, 1948 McCormick Farmall Cub Additionally, 5 of the students pictured went on to apply for the Chevron Tractor Restoration Competition and were selected as top 10 finalists in the nation!
We are so proud of the great group of young adults that consistently put in work to restore their tractors, and commit to learning new things all year long.
If you would like to submit a story with photo(s) about an experience with your tractor, interesting facts about its history, or a restoration project, please go to Tractor Story Submissions. If your story is picked to appear on the blog you will receive a FREE Steiner hat. Some stories will also go on to be published in our quarterly magazine. We look forward to hearing your story!
