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Kentucky state FFA officer balances school, hobbies

By TIM THORNBERRY
Kentucky Correspondent

FRANKFORT, Ky. — Nick Fleitz has a full plate. Last week, he met Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear in his capacity as vice president of the state’s FFA chapter. Beshear signed a proclamation declaring February as FFA Month.

Over the weekend, he moved on to Louisville to greet attendees at the National Farm Machinery Show. He is back at school this week as a freshman at the University of Kentucky. Finding time to do something else might seem a little impossible, but Fleitz has a hobby of sorts that he will always find time to do.

He restores tractors with his father and grandfather in Oldham County. In fact, they have moved away from just tractors and recently finished an old Studebaker.

“It started when I was a kid, I was in elementary school. My dad had a tractor he had been around his whole life. It was his grandparent’s and he wanted to restore it,” said Fleitz. “We started with that one and went from there, going on to other projects. We ended up building a big shop where we could have space.”

He added that the restorations have mainly been winter projects to give them something to do and get out of the house. Those winter projects even involved an old truck that would become Fleitz’s first car.

“It was a 1971 Chevy truck,” he said. “We’ve also repainted several vehicles along with work tractors and we just finished the 1950 Studebaker about a month ago.”

That car also belonged to Fleitz’s great-grandparents creating a lot of sentimental value once completed.

He said much of what they know about restoration, they learned along the way with his dad passing on his knowledge to him. In fact, his grandfather lends a hand as well creating three generations of knowledge.

“Having these vehicles in the family for so long and then seeing them restored, means a lot to them,” Fleitz said of his father and grandfather.

While many 19 year-olds are doing all they can to get away from their families, Nick said his close relationship with his family comes from spending a lot of time with his dad as he grew up.

“My dad has always raised my brother and me to work teaching us how to work on different things and how to fix them,” he said. “Being a close knit family, that’s where it all began.”

Of course Fleitz also recognizes the benefits his experience with FFA has provided to his educational career and well as his abilities in his restoring endeavors. He began in the organization as a freshman in high school after getting recommendations from some of his friends. By the time he was a senior, he had become the president of his local chapter. Fleitz also said his experiences in ag classes during his high school years have helped with his hobby.

“I’ve always been interested in agriculture and FFA just clicked with me. I really felt like I belonged,” he said. “This has definitely been very rewarding.

Fleitz has spent much of his tenure as a state officer traveling around Kentucky and the country meeting legislators and those in the agriculture industry, as well as other members.

“It’s great to give back after all the organization has done for me,” he said.

It takes a lot of hours to complete one of the restoration projects, but Fleitz doesn’t complain. He said he would recommend to any young person to find a common interest with their parents or family in order to bring them closer.

“Any kind of common ground between family members will help them spend more time together. There’s just something special about it when I look back at all the things we’ve done and time we have had together,” he said.

In an era when young people are much more interested in video games than spending hours in a shop putting a tractor back together, Fleitz seems to be the exception, but he is using his abilities to pave his future. He is studying to be an agricultural engineer in hopes of designing agriculture equipment someday.

2/17/2010