TPI FAMILY COMES TO THE RESCUE By Suz Trusty
Early on the July morning of Friday the 13th, Scout Master Jason Pooler, owner of Tri-Turf Sod Farms, Inc., in Paris, Tennessee, and Assistant Scout Master Troy Crawford, headed for Colorado with seven members of their Boy Scout Troop 22 in a borrowed 15-passenger van. Two of those scouts were Jason’s sons, Jacob (age 17) and Preston (age 14).
Teir original plan had been for a two-week adventure at Philmont Scout Ranch in northern New Mexico, a site long prized by Scouts for its rugged trails and mountain peaks. Te plans changed when all hiking and other activities scheduled there were shut down due to the destructive 36,000-acre wildfire that raged through New Mexico. According to a CNN report, approximately 13,000 youth and adults that had registered for events there were affected by the shutdown.
Jason says, “We’d done some searching and had selected an alternate site, in Gunnison, Colorado, which would give us the opportunity to hike the Elk Trace Trail. Our route took us through Wichita, Kansas. We were about 30 miles on the west side of Wichita when our van broke down. I called Tim Wollesen of Sales Midwest, Inc. because he was the first TPI member I could think of that was located in Kansas.”
When Tim got the emergency call that evening, he was in Hilton Head, South Carolina, quite a distance from his
Olathe, KS, headquarters. With Olathe about three hours from Wichita, sending help from there was not a viable option either. So Jason asked if there was a “sod farm buddy” closer to them.
Tim says, “TPI has several members close to Wichita, but the first one I pulled up on my phone was Tony Wilbur of Te Sod Shop. Jason told me he knew them, so I gave him Tony’s cell phone number.”
Jason says, “Tony was hauling hay out of the field when I caught him and told him our situation. We figured he was about 45 minutes away from us. Te weather forecasters were tracking a big lightning storm with heavy rains that was moving toward Wichita, but Tony told me not to worry. He said he’d get back home with his hay load and come to get all of us and he said they had a brand-new shop with plenty of space, so we could all camp in there out of the storm.”
It was 8:30 at night when Tony and his wife Olivia showed up at the broken-down van. Tey had come in two separate vehicles to make sure they’d have enough room for all the guys and their gear. Jason says, “Tey had the name and phone number for a mechanic they trusted who would work on the van. We got the wrecker contacted and had the van towed there. Troy and six of the scouts, along with the gear, piled into the vehicle Olivia was driving for the trip to Te Sod Shop. Tony took me and my oldest son
Jason (fifth from left), Todd (second from left) and their scouts pose with Bob (third from left) in front of Te Sod Shop truck right next to the shop that they “camped in.”
48 TPI Turf News September/October 2018
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