Ride to benefit Cures for Colors
By Steve Herring
Published in News on August 25, 2015 1:46 PM
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M.F. McCullen of Mount Olive sits on his John Deere tractor. The Eastern Carolina Tractor Ride and barbecue plate sale will be held at his home on N.C. 55 east of Mount Olive on Sept. 26 as a fundraiser for Cures for the Colors. For more information about the ride or to download an application visit www.easterncarolinatractorride.com or call 919-658-4778.
MOUNT OLIVE -- For years M.F. McCullen Jr. has dreamed of turning his love of history and agriculture into a parade of tractors chugging along the back roads of rural Wayne and Duplin counties.
He and his wife, Faye, also wanted to pay forward the help their son Chad, a cancer survivor, received from the nonprofit Cures for the Colors.
They will do both next month when the Eastern Carolina Tractor Ride and barbecue plate sale is held in honor of their son.
All of the proceeds will go to Cures for the Colors.
"We wanted to do something for them and he would accomplish the tractor ride that he has always wanted to have," Mrs. McCullen said. "About a year after Chad got sick he (M.F. McCullen) got to thinking about it (ride). He has actually been working on it seriously for six months."
The event will be held Saturday, Sept. 26, beginning at 9 a.m. with the tractor ride starting at 10 a.m. Registration forms and participation donations must be returned by Sept. 5.
The Eastern Carolina Vintage Farm Equipment Club is assisting in the ride that will be held rain or shine.
The minimum donation is $50 for a tractor and driver and $25 for individuals.
"If a person comes and eats, it is $25," Mrs. McCullen said. "It sounds like a lot, but it is a fundraiser. If you drive a tractor and then do everything it is $50."
Additional donations will be accepted as well.
Checks should be made payable to the Eastern Carolina Tractor Ride.
The 15-mile ride through rural Wayne and Duplin counties will be followed by a barbecued turkey or pork dinner and a tour of McCullen Farms including McCullen Antiques.
The ride is expected to take about two hours and will start at the McCullens' home, 2616 N.C. 55 east of Mount Olive.
The route will go out as far as Butterball and will avoid the major roads like N.C. 55 and N.C. 111, Mrs. McCullen said.
"A lot of tractor clubs do these and my husband always thought it was such a wonderful idea," Mrs. McCullen said. "Then our son, Chad, our baby son, he had colo-rectal cancer.
"He went to Dr. (James) Atkins which this is his foundation. He had to have extensive surgery, and he had to have radiation and chemotherapy which is what the Cures for the Colors is about."
Dr. Atkins founded the nonprofit Cures for the Colors and all of the money raised for it are used to help cancer patients and their families in eastern North Carolina.
Cures for the Colors was chosen as the trademark for the nonprofit Southeastern Cancer Care since each cancer as its own color. For example pink is for breast cancer, green for kidney, and blue for colon.
Chad McCullen was 39 when he was first diagnosed with cancer.
"About a year or so later they removed his thyroid because it was cancerous, but it wasn't related to the first cancer," she said. "He is cancer free. He has been. But treatments can be rough on some people. Some people get along fine, but they were rough on him.
"My husband kept thinking about that he would like to do something because it is a like a personal touch when you are going through that for them (Cures for the Colors) to give you a card to go to the grocery store. They do little things according to people's needs. I am sure they help a lot of people a lot more than they did Chad, but he didn't need as much. But still it feels good. It is like a personal touch from them when you are having treatments and you get those little things that they do."
The tractors will ride out into the country and local fire departments will help them at the corners, Mrs. McCullen said.
"They will just ride," she said. "Then they will come back. We will have lunch. We will have barbecued pork, and we will have barbecued turkey and the whole nine yards with it.
"We have four antique buildings, and we are going to have those open and let the people look at that. We will have the Knowles Family there singing throughout the day. They are from Rones Chapel. We will just have a fun day."
Volunteers from the Cures for the Colors will help serve. Friends in the community will help, and volunteers from Northeast Original Free Will Baptist Church will cook the turkeys. Members of the Eastern Carolina Vintage Farm Equipment Club will cook the pigs.
No coolers, alcoholic beverages or pets will be allowed.
The McCullens have been farming for 55 years so agriculture is important to them, but so is history, Mrs. McCullen said.
That is the reason they have several old buildings filled with antiques, she said.
For more information about the ride or to download an application visit www.easterncarolinatractorride.com or call 919-658-4778.