Farm Toy Show
• What: 25th Annual Monroe FFA Chapter and Monroe FFA Alumni Farm Toy Show
• When: Sunday, March 11, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. A pedal-pull for ages 4 to 9 is at 1 p.m.
• Where: Monroe High School, 1600 26th St.
• Admission is $3 for adults, and children under 10 will be admitted for free..
In Gary Schmid's family, Minneapolis-Moline toy tractors aren't just objects to admire and collect. They're family tradition.
"I was born and raised on a farm, and Minneapolis-Moline was the first tractor I ever drove," said Schmid, a 52-year-old Monroe resident who works on his family's farm near Yellowstone Lake north of Argyle.
His father collected miniature versions of the Minneapolis-Moline tractor. Schmid and his brothers and grandson all carry on the tradition.
Schmid is bringing his collection of more than 75 tractors to the 25th Annual Monroe FFA and FFA Alumni Toy Show this Sunday, March 11. The show will have more than 130 tables of tractor and Nascar toy miniature collectibles, as well as farm displays and opportunities to buy, sell and trade toys.
Schmid's grandson Braydon is bringing his own collection, too.
"You'll see him sitting there Sunday, proud as a peacock," Schmid said.
Dale Daigger and Don Steiner started the toy show in Monroe in the mid-1980s at the West Mall, and within a few years it outgrew the mall and moved to the high school, where it became a fundraiser for the FFA and took on its current title. Josh and Liz Steiner took over organizing the show a few years ago.
All money raised goes to the FFA to send local high school FFA members to a five-day leadership conference this summer in Washington, D.C. The conference gives teenagers a chance to network and collaborate with their peers from around the country.
"It's getting them out of the state. It helps them prepare for the future," said Carmen Montgomery, who runs the 63-member FFA program in the Monroe School District.
Montgomery remembers going to the conference as a participating teenager in 2003.
"It was a great experience. I stayed in contact with those people for quite a few years," she said.
To commemorate the toy show's 25th anniversary - and help raise more funds for FFA - the organizers are selling 1/64-scale John Deere 4440 tractors and International Harvester 1466s at $8 each.
Schmid will be bringing toys scaled at 1/64 and 1/16 to display on Sunday, including a few of his father's tractors.
He keeps the tractor collection in a glass case in his living room, surrounded by his wife Dawn's own collections of dolls and Native American artifacts.
"There's not two that are the same," he said. "I don't want none of 'em ever to be sold. They'll go to my kids, my grandkids."
"I was born and raised on a farm, and Minneapolis-Moline was the first tractor I ever drove," said Schmid, a 52-year-old Monroe resident who works on his family's farm near Yellowstone Lake north of Argyle.
His father collected miniature versions of the Minneapolis-Moline tractor. Schmid and his brothers and grandson all carry on the tradition.
Schmid is bringing his collection of more than 75 tractors to the 25th Annual Monroe FFA and FFA Alumni Toy Show this Sunday, March 11. The show will have more than 130 tables of tractor and Nascar toy miniature collectibles, as well as farm displays and opportunities to buy, sell and trade toys.
Schmid's grandson Braydon is bringing his own collection, too.
"You'll see him sitting there Sunday, proud as a peacock," Schmid said.
Dale Daigger and Don Steiner started the toy show in Monroe in the mid-1980s at the West Mall, and within a few years it outgrew the mall and moved to the high school, where it became a fundraiser for the FFA and took on its current title. Josh and Liz Steiner took over organizing the show a few years ago.
All money raised goes to the FFA to send local high school FFA members to a five-day leadership conference this summer in Washington, D.C. The conference gives teenagers a chance to network and collaborate with their peers from around the country.
"It's getting them out of the state. It helps them prepare for the future," said Carmen Montgomery, who runs the 63-member FFA program in the Monroe School District.
Montgomery remembers going to the conference as a participating teenager in 2003.
"It was a great experience. I stayed in contact with those people for quite a few years," she said.
To commemorate the toy show's 25th anniversary - and help raise more funds for FFA - the organizers are selling 1/64-scale John Deere 4440 tractors and International Harvester 1466s at $8 each.
Schmid will be bringing toys scaled at 1/64 and 1/16 to display on Sunday, including a few of his father's tractors.
He keeps the tractor collection in a glass case in his living room, surrounded by his wife Dawn's own collections of dolls and Native American artifacts.
"There's not two that are the same," he said. "I don't want none of 'em ever to be sold. They'll go to my kids, my grandkids."