Awarded in December 2007
Lowe & Young Inc. was chosen Wayne County Schools Career Center Outstanding Business Partner. Bill Hartzler, secretary-treasurer and New Holland parts manager, represented Lowe & Young.
This farm implement dealer, located just east of Wooster on old Route 30, opened in 1949 with partners Roy Lowe Jr. and Donald Young. Carlton Steiner, now the president of Lowe & Young, has been there for 47 years.
Through the years, Lowe & Young has hired many of our students, and currently has 10 Ag Mechanics alumni out of 22 workers there. Co-owners Bill Boreman, Jason Steiner, Bill Hartzler, Craig Forrer are all graduates of WCSCC Ag programs. Both Craig Forrer and Bill Boreman started at Lowe & Young during their senior years in Ag Mechanics.
Ag Mechanics/Power Technology junior instructor Wayne Bartter worked at Lowe & Young for 10 years before coming to teach at the Career Center. He nominated Lowe & Young for the award.
Bill Hartzler wrote a fine letter to the editor to support our successful levy campaign this past November. “It is a common practice when we need a person to work at the parts counter or when we need a technician for our shop, we call the Wayne County Schools Career Center and talk to the instructors,” Bill said in the letter. “We feel that the training and experience that Career Center students bring with them is very valuable to the dealership. Wayne County’s agricultural community depends on skilled and dedicated workers. We need the WCSCC to provide the education and workforce vital to our agricultural business.”
Since the beginning of the Wayne County Joint Vocational School in 1969, a representative from Lowe & Young has continually been on an advisory committee for Ag Mechanics, and always donates items as door prizes for the annual Ag Mechanics FFA banquet.
The business supplies parts and tools for shop projects, send tractors and judges for contests and host contest practices for Ag students. They have arranged factory training for instructors as well as providing training aids for the lab and classroom.
Throughout the school year, the business provides assistance to the instructors and students’ technical questions over the phone, and also allow students to work on difficult parts of a project in Lowe & Young’s shop.
The Wayne County Schools Career Center appreciates Lowe & Young’s ongoing contributions to and support of our programs and students.